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THE LABOR MOVEMENT 
IN FRANCE 

A Study in Revolutionary Syndicalism 






BY 

LOUIS LEVINE 



SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN THE 

Faculty of Political Science 
in Columbia University 



NEW YORK 
1912 






\°v 



v v 



JUL ** 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

The term syndicalism sounds strange to an English 
reader. Its equivalent in English would be Unionism. A 
syndicat is a union of workingmen, on a trade or on an in- 
dustrial basis, for the defense of economic interests. 

Revolutionary Syndicalism, however, has a broader con- 
notation than the etymology of the term would suggest. A 
critical analysis of existing institutions, a socialist ideal, 
and a peculiar conception of revolutionary methods to be 
used for the realization of the ideal — are all contained in 
it. Revolutionary Syndicalism appears, therefore, as a 
phase of the general movement towards a reorganization 
of society on socialist principles. 1 

Revolutionary Syndicalism cannot be treated, however, 
exclusively as a phase of the evolution of Socialism. As 
the term suggests, it is also a development of the French 
Labor Movement. The organization which represents 
Revolutionary Syndicalism in France is the General Con- 
federation, of Labor {La Confederation Generate du Tra- 
vail, generally referred to as the C. G. T.) — the central 
organization of the labor unions or syndicats in France. 
The history of Revolutionary Syndicalism coincides al- 
most entirely with the history of the General Confedera- 
tion, and it may be said that its future is entirely bound 
up with the destinies of this organization. 

In fact, Revolutionary Syndicalism is an attempt to fuse 
revolutionary socialism and trade unionism into one co- 
herent movement. Peculiar conditions of French social 

1 The term "socialist" is here used in a wide sense to include all 
varieties, even anarchism. 

235] 5 



6 AUTHOR'S PREFACE [236 

history have thrown the socialists and anarchists into the 
syndicats and have secured their leadership there. In this 
respect, Revolutionary Syndicalism is a unique and inter- 
esting chapter in the history of both Socialism and Trades 
unionism and of their mutual relations. 

Revolutionary Syndicalism has attracted much attention 
outside of France. Its more or less rapid development, 
the turmoil into which it has thrown France several times, 
the extreme ideas which it expresses, the violent methods 
it advocates, and its attempts of proselytism outside of 
France have awakened an interest in it. A number of 
studies on the movement have appeared in German, Ital- 
ian, Russian and other European periodicals and books. 
In English, however, the subject has not received the con- 
sideration it would seem to deserve from the theoretical as 
well as from the practical point of view. 

Revolutionary Syndicalism is an aggressive movement. 
Its aim is to do away with existing institutions and to re- 
construct society along new lines. It must, therefore, nec- 
essarily call forth a definite attitude on the part of those 
who become acquainted with it. Those who speak about 
it are either its friends or its enemies, and even those who 
want to be impartial towards it are generally unable to 
resist the flood of sentiment which such a movement sets 
loose in them. 

Impartiality, however, has been the main effort of the 
writer of this essay. It has appeared to him more im- 
portant to describe the facts as they are and to understand 
the conditions back of the facts, than to pass sentence 
whether of approval or of condemnation. He has made 
the effort, therefore, to suppress his personality entirely 
in all that part of his work which is purely descriptive. 
The method adopted has been to describe ideas and facts 
sympathetically — whether syndicalist or anti-syndicalist, 



237] 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE 



whether promoting or hindering the development of Revo- 
lutionary Syndicalism. 

The idea that has guided the writer is as follows: Let 
us imagine that social phenomena could be registered auto- 
matically. All social facts would then be recorded with all 
the sympathies and antipathies with which they are mixed 
in real life, because the latter are part of the facts. 
When social descriptions go wrong it is not because they 
are tinged with feeling, but because they are colored by 
those feelings which they arouse in the writer and not by 
those which accompany them in reality. The main task 
of the writer, therefore, is to try to enter into the feelings 
which go along with the facts which he is describing. 

This means that the writer must alternately feel and 
think as a different person. However difficult this may be, 
it is still possible by an effort of imagination prompted by 
a desire to get at the truth. 

This method seems more correct than an attempt to re- 
main entirely indifferent and not to be swayed by any 
feeling. Indifference does not secure impartiality; it re- 
sults mostly in colorlessness. For instance, were the 
writer to remain indifferent or critical while describing the 
syndicalist ideas, the latter could not be outlined with all 
the force and color with which they appear in the exposi- 
tion of their representatives. This would not produce an 
impartial description, therefore, but a weak and conse- 
quently untrue one. On the contrary, by trying to feel 
and to think as a revolutionary syndicalist, while describ- 
ing the syndicalist ideas, it is possible to come nearer to 
reality. The same method is used in the description of 
anti-syndicalist ideas and efforts. 

The result seems to the writer to be the creation of the 
necessary illusion and the reproduction of the atmosphere 
in which the movement developed. A critical and personal 



8 AUTHOR'S PREFACE [238 

attitude has been taken only when the writer wished to ex- 
press his own views. Whether the writer has been more 
successful than others in this attempt, is for the reader to 
decide. 

From the point of view taken in this essay, Revolution- 
ary Syndicalism has to be described both as a theory and as 
a practice. The effort is made throughout, however, to 
consider the theory in close relation to the practice. 

The first chapter is introductory and serves merely to 
give the necessary historical perspective. This explains its 
brevity. 

Revolutionary Syndicalism is undoubtedly a peculiar 
product of French life and history. Still many of its ideas 
have a general character and may be of interest to men and 
women of other countries. After all, the problems that 
confront the whole civilized world to-day are the same, and 
the conditions in which their solution has to be tried are 
everywhere alike in many respects. It has been the writer's 
sincere hope throughout this work that the history of syn- 
dicalism may stimulate the readers of this essay to reflec- 
tion and criticism that may be of help to them in their 
efforts to advance the cause of social progress in their own 
country. 

The author wishes to make grateful acknowledgments to 
Professor Vladimir G. Simkhovitch, Professor Henry 
Rogers Seager and other professors of Columbia Univer- 
sity who have in one way or another aided him in the 
prosecution of his work; but especially is he indebted to 
Professor Franklin H. Giddings for invaluable criticisms 
and suggestions which have guided him throughout his 
work, and to Professor Edwin R. A. Seligman for encour- 
agement and advice, and help in making it possible for the 
work to appear in its present form. 

Louis Levine. 

November, 191 1. 



CONTENTS 



Author's Preface 5 

Introduction, by Professor Franklin H. Giddings 13 

CHAPTER I 
The Labor Movement in France to the Commune (1 789-1 871) 

Legislation of French Revolution on trade associations ; law Le Chapelier, 
1791 — Laws of Napoleon — Prohibition of strikes — Violation of these laws 
— Secret labor organizations in France : compagnonnages, societies of re- 
sistance — Revolution of 1848 and the coSperative movement — Influence 
of Louis Blanc — Reaction during the fifties — Revival of labor movement 
in 1862— Effort of French workingmen to break legal barriers— New law 
on strikes in 1864 — Toleration of labor unions by Government of Napoleon 
III — Syndicats and cooperation — Failure of cooperative central bank in 
1868— Communistic and Revolutionary tendencies in "The International" 
— Success of "The International" in 1869 — Franco- Prussian War and its 
influence on the French labor movement 15 

CHAPTER II 
Origin of the General Confederation of Labor (1871-1895) 

The influence of the Commune on the syndicats — Barberet and his r6le in 
the s>ndical movement (1872-79) — The first Labor Congress in France 
(1876) — Acceptance of the Socialist program by the syndicats at the con- 
gress of Marseilles (1879) — The Socialist groups in France: Guesdists, 
Broussists, Allemanists, Blanquists, Independents, Anarchists — Their 
points of agreement and of difference — Influence of socialist divisions on 
development of labor organizations — Attempts of syndicats to form a cen- 
tral organization — The National Federation of Sydicats; its failure — The 
Bourse du Travail — The Federation of Bourses du Travail — The idea of 
the general strike — Its conception — Criticism by Guesdists — Split in Na- 
tional Federation of Synicats — Formation of General Confederation of 
Labor by advocates of general strike and opponents of Guesdists .... 41 
2393 9 



IO CONTENTS [240 

PACS 

CHAPTER III 
The Federation of Bourses du Travail 

Importance of Bourses du Travail ; their rapid growth — Municipal and gov- 
ernmental subventions — Program of Bourses du Travail — Federation of 
Bourses du Travail organized in 1892 — Its original purpose — Femand 
Pelloutier Secretary of Federation — His role and influence — Conception of 
syndicat as the cell of future society — Growth of Federation of Bourses; 
its relations with the General Confederation of Labor 69 

CHAPTER IV 
The General Confederation of Labor from 1895- 1902 

Reasons for dividing history of General Confederation into two periods — 
Weakness of Confederation before 190 2 —Congress of Tours in 1896 — 
Discussion of the idea of the general strike — Congress of Toulouse in 1897 
— Discussion of sabotage and boycott and of " Direct Action " — Congress of 
Rennes in 1898 — Congresses of Paris in 1900 and of Lyons in 1901 — 
Revolutionary character of Congress of Lyons : New conception of general 
Strike; revolutionary character of syndicat; antimilitaristic ideas ; opposi- 
tion to labor legislation — Causes of revolutionary ideas: changes in the 
program and methods of socialist parties ; Dreyfus affair ; entrance of 
socialist Millerand into " bourgeois " government — Congress of Montpellier 
in 1902 and the fusion of the Federation of Bourses du Travail with the 
General Confederation of Labor 87 



CHAPTER V 
The Doctrine of Revolutionary Syndicalism 

Class struggle, its meaning and importance — Syndicat the proper organiza- 
tion for carrying on class struggle — Strength of syndicat by uniting work- 
ingmen without distinction of race, religion, political or philosophical ideas 
— Industrial unionism versus Craft unionism — Syndicats and "Direct 
Action " — Methods of " Direct Action :" strike, boycott, sabotage, label — 
The direct struggle against the State; exclusion of parliamentary methods 
— Criticism of democracy — Class struggle versus class solidarity — Anti- 
patriotism — Anti militarism — General strike the means of emancipating 
workingmen — The ideal society of the syndicalists: economic federalism — 
The role of the " conscious minority " — Syndicats the true leaders of the 
working class 1 



2 4 l] CONTENTS II 

PAGE 

CHAPTER VI 
The Theorists of Revolutionary Syndicalism 

Two groups of writers on syndicalism, (a) workingmen (6) intellectuals — 
Their points of disagreement — Representative of intellectuals ; Georges 
Sorel — His works — His conception of syndicalism as neo-Marxism — 
Fundamental idea of Marx ; no Utopias — Task of socialists to teach work- 
ingmen — The importance of the idea of the general strike — The general 
strike a " social myth " — What is a " social myth ? " — Importance of 
"social myths" in revolutionary movements — The general strike as a 
means of producing a complete rupture between working class and bour- 
geoisie — Sorel's theory of progress ; only technical progress continuous ; 
succession of cultures not continuous — Necessity of combating democracy 
— Democracy — the regime of professional politicians who rule the people 
— Class struggle and violence ; meaning of violence — General strike a great 
moral force — Syndicalist ideas founded on pessimistic basis — Pessimism as 
cause of great historical achievements — Ideas of Bergson — Criticism of 
Sorel ; neo-Marxism not true to spirit of Marx — Lagardelle and his writ- 
ings — Influence of Sorel — Criticism of Prof. Sombart's views — Syndicalism 
a development independent of Sorel — Relation of syndicalism to other social 
theories 135 



CHAPTER VII 
The General Confederation of Labor Since 1902 

Constitution of General Confederation of Labor adopted in 1902 — Activity 
of General Confederation — Movement to suppress employment bureaus — 
Congress of Bourges in 1904 — Triumph of revolutionary syndicalism — 
Movement for eight hour day from 1904 to 1906 — Agitation in France — 
Fear of "social revolution" — Government arrests leaders — Results of 
strike movement — Congress of Amiens in 1906 — Struggle between revolu- 
tionaries and reformists — Adoption of resolution " the charter of syndical- 
ism " — Revolutionary activity of Confederation after Congress of Amiens 
— Demonstration of Villeneuve St. George in 1908 — Collision with troops; 
killed and wounded; arrest of syndicalist leaders — Congress of Marseilles 
in 1908 — Congress of Toulouse in 1910 — Growth of General Confederation 
of Labor — The demonstrations of the General Confederation against war 
— Relations of General Confederation with International Secretariat of 
Labor 155 



12 CONTENTS [242 

PAGK 

CHAPTER VIII 

Character and Conditions of Revolutionary Syndicalism 

Revolutionary syndicalism as a result of a coalition in the Confederation — 
The parties to this bloc : anarchists, revolutionary socialists, syndicalists — 
Formation and strength of the bloc — The socialist ideal of a free workshop 
— Historical traditions and the revolutionary spirit in French workingmen 
— Causes of the distrust of " politicians " and of parliamentary methods — 
The antagonism between workingman and intellectual — Revolutionary 
syndicalists not a minority in General Confederation — Conditions of syndi- 
calism : poverty of French syndicats; psychology of French workingmen 
— Sydicats loosely held together — Weakness as cause of violent methods — 
French love of theory and of formulas — Similar actions of revolutionists 
and reformists in Confederation according to circumstances — Conditions 
necessary for realization of program of revolutionary syndicalism — Outlook 
for the future 1S4 

Bibliography 208 



INTRODUCTION 

The democratic social movement has overleaped its 
platform and escaped out of the hands of its instigators. 
It is larger than any school of ideas and will not be bound 
by any program. It can be analyzed in part, and in general 
terms described, but it can no longer be defined. 

Socialism as one phase of this unmanaged and unman- 
ageable tide, has itself been profoundly affected by the 
magnitude, the complexity, and the waywardness of the 
mass motion. It now has its " Right " and its " Left." 
There is a conservative, and there is a radical socialism. 
Each proclaims the class struggle, and both demand the col- 
lective ownership of the chief means of production. But 
conservative socialism lays stress upon collective ownership, 
and would move toward it by peaceful, evolutionary steps. 
It relies on the ballot, believes in legislation, in law, and 
in government ; while radical socialism proclaims " the 
revolution, " plans for the general strike, and preaches the 
expediency of sabotage and violence. 

At first sight almost identical with radical socialism is 
Syndicalism, which, however, proves upon examination 
to be both more and less than any socialistic program. In 
its most characteristic expression, syndicalism denies the 
state and would substitute for it a purely voluntary collec- 
tivism. So far it is at one with anarchism, and there are 
those who conceive of syndicalism as an anarchistic move- 
ment in opposition to socialism. The trade union organiza- 
tion of labor the world over is looked upon by the syndicalist 
as the natural basis and agency of his enterprise, quite as 
existing political organizations are accepted by the conser- 
243] 13 



I 4 INTRODUCTION [244 

vative or parliamentary socialist as the best preliminary 
norms from which to evolve a new social order. 

In this division of the forces of social democracy into 
right and left groups over the question of organization and 
control, we have a significant demonstration of the inade- 
quacy of that Marxian analysis which resolves all social 
conflict into the antagonism of economic classes. More 
profound than that antagonism, and in the order of time 
more ancient, is the unending warfare between those who 
believe in law and government for all, and those who be- 
lieve in law and government for none. The more or less 
paradoxical character of the socialistic movement at the 
present moment is attributable to the circumstance that, 
for the time being, these antagonistic forces of socialism 
and anarchism are confronting a common enemy — the in- 
dividualist, who believes in law and government for every- 
body but himself. 

To describe, explain and estimate a phenomenon so com- 
plex as modern revolutionary syndicalism is a task from 
which the economist and the historian alike might well 
shrink. To understand it and to enable readers to under- 
stand it is an achievement. I think that I am not speaking 
in terms of exaggeration in saying that Dr. Levine has 
been more successful in this arduous undertaking than any 
predecessor. His pages tell us in a clear and dispassionate 
way what revolutionary syndicalism is, how it began, and 
how it has grown, what its informing ideas and purposes 
are, and by what methods it is forcing itself upon the ser- 
ious attention of the civilized world. I think that it is a 
book which no student of affairs can afford to overlook, 
or to read in any other spirit than that of a sincere desire 
to know what account of the most profound social disturb- 
ance of our time is offered by a competent reporter of the 
facts. 
Columbia University. FRANKLIN H. GlDDINGS. 



CHAPTER I 

The Labor Movement in France to the Commune 
(1789-1871) 

The economic legislation of the French Revolution was 
guided by individualistic ideas. These ideas expressed the 
interests of the rising middle class who felt a necessity of 
removing the obstacles in the way of economic initiative 
and of personal effort. These interests and ideas dictated 
the law of March 2-17, 1791, which abolished the guilds 
and inaugurated the era of competition in France (Lib- 
erie du Travail). The law declared that henceforth 
everybody was " free to do such business, exercise such 
profession, art, or trade, as he may choose." x 

The abolition of the guilds cleared the way for the tech- 
nical changes that had just begun and the development of 
which was yet in the future. These changes are well known 
and need not detain us. They may be summarized as the 
application of science to industry and especially the intro- 
duction of machinery. The process went on in France 
irregularly, affecting different industries and different local- 
ities in various degrees. The first machine (machine a 
vapeur) was introduced in France about 181 5; in 1830 
there were about 600 in operation. Some idea of the later 
changes may be gained from the following table giving the 
number of machines in France from 1839 to 1907: 

1 Les Associations Professionelles Ouvrieres, Office du Travail 
(Paris, 1899), vol. i, p. 7. 

2 45] 15 



l6 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [246 

Year No. of Machines Total Horsepower 

1839 2,450 33,ooo 

1851 5,672 71,000 

1861 15,805 191,000 

1871 26,146 316,000 

1881 44,010 576,000 

1891 55,967 916,000 

1901 75,866 1,907,000 

1907 79,773 2,473,846 x 

The introduction of machinery meant both the absorp- 
tion of a larger part of the population in industry and the 
concentration of industry in a smaller number of estab- 
lishments. This necessarily led to an absolute and rela- 
tive increase in the numbers of the working population of 
France. 

This class of the population was regulated in its economic 
action for nearly a century by another law passed June 
14-17, 1 79 1, and known by the name of its author as the 
law Le Chapelier. The law Le Chapelier was dictated by 
the same general interests and ideas as was the law on the 
guilds, but it was made necessary by special circumstances. 

The abolition of the guilds had as one of its effects an 
agitation among the journeymen for higher wages and for 
better conditions of employment. During the summer of 
1 79 1, Paris was the scene of large meetings of journey- 
men, where matters of work and wages were discussed. 
The movement spread from trade to trade, but the struggle 
was particularly acute in the building trades. Profiting by 
the law of August 21, 1790, which gave all citizens the 
" right to assemble peacefully and to form among them- 
selves free associations subject only to the laws which all 
citizens must obey," 2 the carpenters formed L'Union fra~ 

1 Annuaire Statistique. 

2 Les Associations Professionelles, vol. i, p. 8. 



247] THE LAB0R MOVEMENT TO THE COMMUNE iy 

ternelle des ouvriers en Vart de la charpente, an associa- 
tion ostensibly for benevolent purposes only, but which in 
reality helped the carpenters in their struggle with their 
masters. The masters repeatedly petitioned the munici- 
pality of Paris to put an end to the " disorders," and to the 
" tyranny " of the journeymen. The masters complained 
that a general coalition of 80,000 workingmen had been 
formed in the capital and that the agitation was spreading 
to the provincial towns. 1 The municipal authorities tried 
to meet the situation, but their " notices " and " decrees " 
had no effect. They then appealed to the Constituent As- 
sembly for a general law on associations and combinations. 
The result was the law Le Chapelier. 

The report by which the bill was introduced brings out 
very clearly the individualistic ideas by which the legis- 
lators of the Revolution were guided. " Citizens of certain 
trades," reads this report, " must not be permitted to as- 
semble for their pretended common interests. There is no 
longer any corporation (guild) in the State; there is but 
the particular interest of each^ individual and the general 
interest. . . ." And further: " It is necessary to abide by 
the principle that only by free contracts, between individ- 
ual and individual, may the workday for each workingman 
be fixed; it is then for the workingman to maintain the 
agreement which he had made with his employer." 2 

The law identified the new combinations with the ancient 
guilds. Its first clause declares that " whereas the abolition 
of all kinds of corporations of citizens of the same estate 
(etat) and of the same trade is one of the fundamental 
bases of the French Constitution, it is prohibited to re- 

1 H. Lagardelle, L'Evolution des Syndicats Ouvriers en France 
(Paris, 1901), p. 13. 
2 Les Associations Professionelles, vol. i, pp. 11-12. 



18 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [248 

establish them de facto under any pretext or form whatso- 
ever ". The second clause formulates the prohibition to 
form trade organizations in terms which leave nothing to 
be desired in clearness and precision. It reads : " The citi- 
zens of the same estate or trade, entrepreneurs, those who 
run a shop, workingmen in any trade whatsoever, shall not, 
when assembled together, nominate presidents, nor secre- 
taries, nor syndics, shall not keep any records, shall not 
deliberate nor pass resolutions nor form any regulations 
with reference to their pretended common interests." The 
fourth clause declares all acts contrary to this law uncon- 
stitutional, subject to the jurisdiction of the police tribu- 
nals, punishable by a fine of 500 livres and by a temporary 
suspension of active rights of citizenship. The sixth and 
seventh clauses determine higher penalties in cases of 
menace and of violence. The eighth clause prohibits all 
"gatherings composed of artisans, of workingmen, of jour- 
neymen or of laborers, or instigated by them and directed 
against the free exercise of industry and work to which 
all sorts of persons have a right under all sorts of condi- 
tions agreed upon by private contract (de gre a gre) ". 
" Such gatherings are declared riotous, are to be dispersed 
by force, and are to be punished with all the severity which 
the law permits." : 

After the law was passed by the Assembly, the author 
of the law, Le Chapelier, added : 

I have heard some say that it would be necessary to make an 
exception in favor of the Chambers of Commerce in cities. 
Certainty you understand well that none of us intends to 
prevent the merchants from discussing in common their in- 
terests. I therefore propose to insert into the proceedings 
the following clause : " The National Assembly, considering 

1 Lcs Associations Professionclles, vol. i, pp. 13-14. 



249] THE LAB0R MOVEMENT TO THE COMMUNE IO> 

that the law which it has just passed does not concern the 
Chambers of Commerce, passes to the order of the day." 

The proposition was adopted. : ' This last vote," remarks 
the historian of the Office dn Travail, " demonstrates 
sufficiently that the law was especially directed against the 
meetings, associations and coalitions of workingmen." x 

The determination to prevent collective action on the 
part of the workingmen also guided the legislative activity 
of Napoleon. In 1803, during the Consulate, a law was 
passed against coalitions; the same law contained a pro- 
vision whereby all workingmen were to have a special cer- 
tificate (livrei) 2 which subjected them to a strict surveil- 
lance of the police. The law of 1803 against coalitions was 
replaced in 18 10 by the clauses 414-416 of the Penal Code 
which prohibited and punished all kinds of coalitions. 
These articles which made strikes and all collective action 
a crime, and which show clearly the discrimination against 
workingmen, are as follows : 

Art. 414. Any coalition among those who employ work- 
ingmen, tending to force down wages unjustly and abusively., 
followed by an attempt or a commencement of execution, shall 
be punished by imprisonment from six days to one month and. 
by a fine of 200 to 3,000 francs. 

Art. 415. Any coalition on the part of workingmen to 
cease work at the same time, to forbid work in a shop, to 
prevent the coming there or leaving it before or after certain 
hours and, in general, to suspend, hinder or make dear labor, 
if there has been an attempt or a beginning of execution, shall 
be punished by imprisonment of one month to three months 
maximum; the leaders and promoters shall be punished by 
imprisonment of two to five years, and 

1 Les Associations Professionelles, vol. i, p. 14. 

2 The obligation of the livret was abolished in 1890. G. Weill, His~ 
toire du Movement Social en France (Paris, 1904), p. 332. 



20 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [250 

Art. 416. There shall also be subject to penalty indicated 
in the preceding article and according to the same distinctions, 
those workingmen who shall have declared fines, prohibitions, 
interdictions and any other proscriptions under the name of 
condemnations and under any qualification whatsoever against 
the directors of the shops and employers, or against each other. 

In the case of this article as well as in that of the preceding, 
the leaders and promoters of the crime, after the expiration 
of their fine, may be made subject to the surveillance of the 
police for two years at least and five years at most. 1 

The prohibition against combination and organization 
was aggravated for the workingmen by articles 291-294 of 
the Penal Code which forbade any kind of associations of 
more than twenty persons. These articles were made more 
stringent by the Law of 1834 which prohibited associa- 
tions even of twenty persons, if they were branches of a 
larger association. 2 

The workingmen, however, soon came to feel that the 
Liber te dii Travail as interpreted by the laws of the 
country put them at a disadvantage in the struggle for ex- 
istence. Individually each one of them was too weak to 
obtain the best bargain from his employer. This was notor- 
iously so in the industries in which machinery was making 
headway, but the relations between employer and working- 
men were aggravated by competition even in those indus- 
tries where the old conditions of trade did not change per- 
ceptibly for some time. Competition forced the employer 
to become a " calculator above everything else " and " to 
consider the workingman only from the point of view of 
the real value which his hands have on the market without 
heed to his human needs." 3 The workingman, on the other 

1 Les Associations Profcssionelles, vol. i, pp. 18-19. 

2 Ibid., pp. 19-20, and p. 26. 

3 M. Du Cellier, Histoire des Classes Laborieuses en France (Paris, 
i860), p. 362. 



251] THE LABOR MOVEMENT TO THE COMMUNE 2 1 

hand, to remedy his individual helplessness was driven to 
disregard the law and to enter into combinations with his 
fellow-workers for concerted action. 

The figures published by the Department of Justice give 
the number of those prosecuted for violating the law on 
strikes — the number of accused, of acquitted and of con- 
demned. These figures are incomplete. They give, how- 
ever, some idea of the frequency and persistence with 
which the workingmen had recourse to strikes in spite of 
the law. 

The figures have been published since 1825. The table 
on the next page gives the yearly figures from that date to 
1864, when a new law on strikes was passed. 

There is other information to show that the strikes often 
assumed the character of a general movement, particularly 
under the influence of political disturbances. During the 
years that followed the Revolution of July (1830) the 
workingmen of France were at times in a state of agitation 
throughout the entire country, formulating everywhere 
particular demands, such as the regulation of industrial 
matters, collective contracts and the like. 1 

In many cases, the strikes were spontaneous outbursts of 
discontent among unorganized workingmen. Frequently, 
however, the strikes were either consciously called out or 
directed by organizations which existed by avoiding the 
law in various ways. 

These organizations were of three different types : the 
compagnonnages, the friendly societies (matualites) and 
the " societies of resistance ". 

The compagnonnages originated under the guild-sys- 
tem and can be traced back as far as the fifteenth cen- 
tury. Their development was probably connected with the 

1 Octave Festy, Le movement ouvrier au debut de la monarchie de 
Juillet, passim. 



22 



THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE 



[252 



Year 



1825. 
1826. 
1827. 
1828. 
1829. 
1830. 
1831. 
1832. 
1833- 
1834- 
1835- 
1836. 
1837. 
1838. 
1839. 
1840. 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
2844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
1849. 
1850. 
1851. 
1852. 

I853. 
1854- 
1855. 
1856. 
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253] THE LAB0R MOVEMENT TO THE COMMUNE 23 

custom of traveling which became prevalent among the 
journeymen of France about that time. 1 A journeyman 
(called compagnon in French) would usually spend some 
time in visiting the principal cities of France (make his 
tour de France) to perfect himself in his trade. A travel- 
ing compagnon would be in need of assistance in many 
cases and the compagnonnages owed their development to 
the necessity of meeting this want. 

The compagnonnages consisted of bachelor journeymen 
only. If a member married or established himself as mas- 
ter, he left the compagnonnage. Besides, admission to the 
compagnonnage was dependent on tests of moral character 
and of technical skill. Thus, the compagnonnages always 
embraced but a small part of the workingmen — the elite 
from the technical point of view. To attain the required 
technical standard, members had to pass some time as as- 
pirants before they could become compagnons. 

The organization of the compagnonnages was very 
simple. All the compagnons of the same trade lived to- 
gether in one house, usually in an inn, kept by the so-called 
mere (mother) or pere (father) of the trade. The com- 
pagnons were generally the only boarders in the house. If 
not numerous enough to occupy the entire house, they had 
one hall for their exclusive occupation. Here they held 
their meetings. Here new members were initiated, and 
here the records and treasury were kept. Here, also, 
compagnons arriving from other towns made themselves 
" recognized " by special signs and symbols. 

All the compagnons of France were divided among 
three " orders " called devoirs. The devoirs bear strange 
names indicating the legends with which the origins of 
these organizations were connected. The devoir, " Sons of 

1 E. Levasseur, Histoire des Classes Ouvrieres et de V Industrie en 
France (Paris, 1900), vol. i, pp. 600 et seq. 



24 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [254 

Master Jack " (Enfants de Maitre Jacques) was founded, 
according to the story, by one of the master-builders of 
King Solomon's Temple. The " Sons of Solomon " (En- 
fants de Solomon) were sure that their order was founded 
by King Solomon himself. The "Sons of Master Soubise" 
regarded another builder of Solomon's Temple as the 
founder of their devoir. Each devoir consisted of a num- 
ber of trades, and sometimes one and the same trade was 
divided between two devoirs. 

Ceremonies and rites constituted an inseparable part of 
the compagnonnages. The initiation of a new member, the 
" recognition " of a newly arrived compagnon, the meet- 
ing of two traveling compagnons on the road, etc., were 
occasions for strange and complicated ceremonies which 
had to be accurately performed. These ceremonies were 
probably due in a large measure to the secrecy in which 
the compagnonnages developed under the ancient regime, 
persecuted as they were by the royal authorities, by the 
church, and by the master-craftsmen. 

Within the compagnonnages the feeling of corporate ex- 
clusiveness and the idea of hierarchical distinctions were 
strong. Emblems of distinction, such as ribbons, canes, 
etc., were worn on solemn occasions, and the way in which 
they were worn, or their number, or color, indicated the 
place of the compagnonnage within the whole corporate 
body. Many riots and bloody encounters were occasioned 
between devoir and devoir and between different compag- 
nonnages within each devoir by disputes over " ribbons " 
and other emblems appropriate to each. 

The three devoirs and the various compagnonnages did 
not form one general solidarity group. The " Sons of 
Solomon " were despised by the other two devoirs. 

The joiners are friends of the carpenters and of the stone- 



255] THE LAB0R MOVEMENT TO THE COMMUNE 2 $ 

cutters, but are enemies of the smiths whom the other two 
trades accept. The smiths reject the harness-makers. The 
blacksmiths have accepted the wheelwrights on condition that 
the latter wear their colors in a low buttonhole; the wheel- 
wrights promised but did not keep their promise; they wear 
their colors as high as the blacksmiths; hence hatred and 
quarrels. The carpenters wear their colors in their hats; the 
winnowers want to wear them in the same way ; that is enough 
to make them sworn enemies. 1 

The compagnonnages did not strive to embrace all mem- 
bers of the same trade or all trades. On the contrary, they 
were averse to initiating a new trade and it sometimes took 
decades before a new trade was fully admitted into the 
organization. 

While these features harked back to the past, the economic 
functions of the compagnonnages anticipated and really 
were a primitive form of the later syndicat. The compag- 
nonnages offered effective protection to the compagnons in 
hard stresses of life as well as in their relations to their 
masters. " The ' devoir ' of the compagnons " (read the 
statutes of one of these societies) " is a fraternal alliance 
which unites us all by the sacred ties of friendship, the 
foundations of which are: virtue, frankness, honesty, love 
of labor, courage, assistance and fidelity." 2 These abstract 
terms translated themselves in life into concrete deeds of 
mutual aid and of assistance which were immensely val- 
uable to the traveling compagnons. A traveling compag- 
non, on arriving at a city or town, would only have to make 
himself " recognized " and his fellow-compagnons would 
take care of him. He would be given lodging and food. 
Employment would be found for him. If sick or in dis- 
tress, he would receive aid. If he wished to leave the town 

1 Les Associations Professionelles, vol. i, p. 95. 

' Maxime Leroy, Syndicats et Services Publics (Paris, 1909), p. 12. 



2 6 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [256 

to continue his tour de France, he would be assisted and 
would be accompanied some distance on the road. 

With their simple organization, the compagnons were 
also able to exert a strong economic influence. They 
served as bureaus of employment. One compagnon, elected 
rouleur, was charged with the duty of rinding employment 
for compagnons and " aspirants ". He kept a list of those 
in need of work and placed them in the order of their in- 
scription. Usually the masters themselves addressed the 
rouleur s for workingmen, when in need of any. 

This fact gave the compagnonnages a control over the 
supply of labor. They could withhold labor from a master 
who did not comply with their demands. They could di- 
rect their members into other towns of the Tour if nec- 
essary, as everywhere the compagnons would find friends 
and protection. They could, therefore, organize strikes 
and boycott a master or workshop for long periods of 
time. In fact, by these methods the compagnonnages 
struggled for higher wages and better conditions of em- 
ployment. As far back as the sixteenth century strikes 
were organized by them. During the Great Revolution 
the compagnonnages existed in twenty-seven trades and 
directed the strike-movement described above. They at- 
tained the height of their development during the first 
quarter of the nineteenth century when they were the only 
effective workingmen's organizations exerting an influence 
in the economic struggles of the time. 

The compagnonnages persisted in several trades during a 
larger part of the nineteenth century. After 1830, how- 
ever, their influence declined, though some insignificant 
survivals of them may still be found. The new industrial 
conditions reduced the significance of the personal skill of 
the workingmen ; the boundaries of the ancient trades were 
shifted, and the ancient trades were themselves entirely 



257] THE LABOR MOVEMENT TO THE COMMUNE 2 J 

transformed. The rapid development of the modern means 
of communication made the tour de France in its old form 
an anachronism. The spread of democratic and secular 
ideas brought the medieval usages and ideas of the com- 
pagnonnages into disrepute and ridicule. Several attempts 
to reform the compagnonnages and to bring them into har- 
mony with the new conditions of life were made by mem- 
bers of the organization, but with no results. 1 

While the compagnonnages were reconstituting them- 
selves during the Consulate and the First Empire, another 
form of organization began to develop among the working- 
men. This was the friendly or benevolent society for 
mutual aid especially in cases of sickness, accident or death. 
Several such societies had existed before the Revolution 
and the law Le Chapelier was directed also against them. 
" It is the business of the nation," was the opinion of Le 
Chapelier, accepted by the Constituent Assembly, " it is the 
business of the public officers in the name of the nation to 
furnish employment to those in need of it and assistance to 
the infirm ". 2 Friendly societies, however, continued to 
form themselves during the nineteenth century. They 
were formed generally along trade lines, embracing mem- 
bers of the same trade. In a general way the government 
did not hinder their development. 

Mrs. Beatrice Webb and Mr. Sidney Webb have shown 
that a friendly society has often been the nucleus of a trade 
union in England. In France the friendly societies for a 
long time played the part of trade unions. The charge of 
promoting strikes and of interfering with industrial matters 
was often brought against them. 3 There were 132 such 

1 On the compagnonnage see, J. Connay, Le Compagnonnage, 1909; 
E. Martin St. Leon, Le Compagnonnage, 1901 ; Agricol Perdigiuer, Le 
Litre du Compagnonnage, 1841. 

2 Les Assoc. Profess., vol. i, p. 193. 3 Ibid., p. 199. 



28 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [258 

trade organizations in Paris in 1823 with 11,000 members, 
and their numbers increased during the following years. 

The form of organization called into being by the new 
economic conditions was the societe de resistance, an or- 
ganization primarily designed for the purpose of exercising 
control over conditions of employment. These societies 
of resistance assumed various names. They usually had 
no benefit features or passed them over lightly in their stat- 
utes. They emphasized the purpose of obtaining collective 
contracts, scales of wages, and general improvements in 
conditions of employment. These societies were all secret, 
but free from the religious and ceremonial characteristics 
of the compagnonnages. 

One of the most famous of these societies in the history 
of the French working-class was the Devoir Mutuel, 
founded by the weavers of Lyons, in 1823. This society 
directed the famous strikes of the weavers in 183 1 and 
1834. Its aim, as formulated in its statutes, was: first, to 
practice the principles of equity; second, to unite the weav- 
ers' efforts in order to obtain a reasonable wage for their 
labor; third, to do away with the abuses of the factory, and 
to bring about other improvements in " the moral and phy- 
sical condition " of its members. The society had 3,000 
members in 1833. l 

In 1833 the smelters of copper in Paris worked out the 
statutes of a society which was to serve as a means of 
resistance against the employers. Two francs a day was 
to be paid to every member who lost employment because 
he did not consent to an unjust reduction in his wages or 
for any other reason which might be regarded as having 
in view the support of the trade; in other cases of unem- 
ployment, no benefit was to be allowed, in view of the fact 
that in ordinary times the smelters were seldom idle. 2 

1 Les Associations Professionelles, vol. i, pp. 201-203. 
* Ibid., vol. i, p. 204. 



259] THE LAB0R MOVEMENT TO THE COMMUNE 2 g 

The society was open to all smelters, without any limita- 
tion of age; it was administered by a council assisted by a 
commission of representatives from the shops, elected by 
the members of the society of each shop. The society was 
soon deprived, however, of its combative character by the 
administration. 1 

A strong society of resistance was organized by the 
printers of Paris in 1839. Though secret, it gained the ad- 
herence of a large part of the trade. In 1848 it had 1,200 
members — half of all the printers at that time in Paris. 
It was administered by a committee. Through its initiative 
a mixed commission of employers and workingmen was 
organized which elaborated a general scale of wages. 
This commission also acted as a council of conciliation and 
of arbitration in disputes between employers and working- 
men. 2 

The compagnonnages, matualites and resistance-societies 
aimed partly or exclusively to better conditions of employ- 
ment by exerting pressure upon employers. These societies 
reveal the efforts that were being made by workingmen to 
adjust themselves to the economic conditions of the time. 
But after 1830, other ideas began to find adherents among 
the French workingmen; namely, the ideas of opposition 
to the entire economic regime based on private property 
and the idea of substituting for this system a new indus- 
trial organization. 

The history of the socialist movement of France before 
1848 can not here be entered into. It has been written and 
rewritten and is more or less known. For the purposes of 
this essay, it is only necessary to point out that during 
this period, and particularly during the Revolutionary 
period of 1848, the idea of co-operation, as a means of 

1 Les Associations Professionelles, vol. i, p. 204 
* Ibid., pp. 205-6. 



30 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [ 2 6o 

abolishing the wage system, made a deep impression upon 
the minds of French workingmen. 1 

The idea of co-operation had been propagated before 
1848 by the Saint-Simonists and Fourierists, and particu- 
larly by Buchez. Buchez outlined a clear plan of co-opera- 
tion in his paper L' Europe en in 183 1-2. Co-operative ideas 
were later propagated by a group of workingmen who pub- 
lished L' Atelier during the forties. 

But only with the outbreak of the Revolution of 1848, 
and under the influence of Louis Blanc, did the co-operative 
idea really become popular with the workingmen. Between 
1848 and 1850 the enthusiasm for co-operative societies 
was great, and a considerable number of these were formed. 
On July 6, 1848, the Constituent Assembly voted a credit 
of 3,000,000 francs for co-operative societies, and this sum 
was divided among 26 societies in Paris and 36 in the 
provinces. 2 But the number of those founded without as- 
sistance was much greater; about 300 in Paris and many 
more in the provinces. Of these societies most perished 
within a short time while the rest were dissolved by the ad- 
ministration of Napoleon III after the coup-d'etat of 
1851. 3 

The Revolution of 1848 was an important moment in 
the history of the French working-class. Though the 
socialist idea of the " Organization of Work " (L'Organi- 
sation du Travail) which was so prominent during the 
Revolution passed into history after the days of June, it 
left an impression upon the minds of French workingmen. 
The belief in a possible social transformation became a tra- 

1 On the history of French socialism : R. T. Ely, French and German 
Socialism (1878); Th. Kirkup, A History of Socialism (1906); G. 
Isambert, Les I dees Socialistes en France (1905); P. Louis, Histoire 
du Socialisme Frangais (1901). 

1 Georges iRenard, La Republique de 1848. 

3 Albert Thomas, Le Second Empire (Paris, 1907). 



2 6l] THE LABOR MOVEMENT TO THE COMMUNE $1 

Jition with them. Besides, the Revolution gave a strong 
impulse to purely trade organizations such as the societes 
dc resistance. Before 1848 they had existed in a few trades 
only. The period of the Revolution witnessed the for- 
mation of a large number of them in various trades and 
strengthened the tendency towards organization which had 
manifested itself before. 

During the first decade of the Second Empire all work- 
ingmen's organizations were persecuted ; most of them per- 
ished; others went again into secrecy or disguised them- 
selves as mutual aid societies. 

With the advent of the second decade of the Empire the 
labor movement acquired an amplitude it had never had 
before. Its main characteristic during this period was a 
decided effort to break the legal barriers in its way and to 
come out into the open. The workingmen's chief demands 
were the abolition of the law on coalitions and the right 
to organize. 

The workingmen were given an opportunity to express 
their views and sentiments on occasions of National and 
International Exhibitions. It had become a custom in 
France to send delegations of workingmen to such exhibi- 
tions. In 1849 tne Chamber of Commerce of Lyons sent a 
delegation of workingmen to the National Exhibition in 
Paris. In 185 1 the municipality of Paris sent some work- 
ingmen to the International Exhibition in London. A del- 
egation was sent again to London in 1862 and to Paris in 
1867. 

The workingmen-delegates published reports in which 
they formulated their views on the condition of their re- 
spective trades and expressed their demands and aspira- 
tions. These reports have been called the cahiers of the 
working-class. The authors of the reports — workingmen 
themselves, elected by large numbers of workingmen — were 



32 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [262 

representative in the true sense of the term and voiced the 
sentiments and ideas of a large part of the French work- 
ingmen of their time. 

The reports published by the delegates of 1862 contain 
a persistent demand for freedom to combine and to or- 
ganize. The refrain of all the reports is: " Isolation kills 
us V The trade unions of England made a deep impres- 
sion on the French delegates and strengthened their con- 
viction of the necessity of organization. " Of 53 reports 
emanating from 183 delegates of Paris, 38 by 145 delegates 
express the desire that syndical chambers be organized in 
their trades." x 

The government of the Empire, which hoped to interest 
the workingmen in its existence, gave way before their 
persistent demands. In 1864, in consequence of a strike 
of Parisian printers which attracted much public attention, 
the old law on coalitions was abolished and the right to 
strike granted. 

The right to strike, however, was bound up with certain 
other rights which the French workingmen were still de- 
nied. Unless the latter had the right to assemble and to 
organize, they could profit but little by the new law on 
coalitions. Besides, the French workingmen were gener- 
ally averse to strikes. The reports of 1862, though demand- 
ing the freedom of coalition, declared that it was not the 
intention of the workingmen to make strikes their habitual 
procedure. The delegates of 1867, who formed a commis- 
sion which met in Paris for two years, discussing all the 
economic problems that interested the workingmen of the 
time, were of the same opinion. A special session of the 
Commission was devoted to the consideration of the means 
by which strikes might be avoided. All agreed that, as one 
of the delegates expressed it, strikes are " the misery of the 

1 G. Weill, op. cit., pp. 63-65. 



263] THE LABOR MOVEMENT TO THE COMMUNE 33 

workingmen and the ruin of the employer " 1 and should 
be resorted to only in cases of absolute necessity. 

What the delegates demanded was the right to organize 
and to form " syndical chambers ". They hoped that with 
the help of these organizations, they would avoid strikes 
and improve their economic condition. 

In the beginning of 1868, a number of delegates to the 
Exhibition of 1867 were received by the Minister of Agri- 
culture, Commerce and Public Works to present their 
views and demands. The vice-president of the Commis- 
sion, M. Parent, indicated clearly what the workingmen 
meant by " syndical chambers " in the following words : 

We all agree to proceed by way of conciliation, but we all have 
also recognized the necessity of guaranteeing our rights by a 
serious organization which should give the workingmen the 
possibility of entering easily and without fear into agreement 
with the employers. ... It is thus in order to avoid strikes, 
guaranteeing at the same time the wages of the workingmen, 
that the delegates of 1867 solicit the authorization to establish 
syndicats in each trade in order to counter-balance the for- 
midable organization of the syndical chambers of the mer- 
chants and manufacturers. . . . The workingmen' s syndical 
chambers, composed of syndics elected by the votes of the 
workingmen of their trade, would have an important role to 
fulfil. Besides the competent experts which they could always 
furnish for the cases subject to the jurisdiction of the 
prud'hommes, for justices of the peace and for the tribunals 
of Commerce, they could furnish arbiters for those conflicts 
which have not for their cause an increase in wages. Such 
are: the regulations of the workshops, the use of health en- 
dangering materials, the bad condition of the machinery and 
of the factory which affect the health of the workingmen and 

1 Commission Ouvriere de 1867, Recueil des Proces-Verbaux, vol. 
i, p. 28. 



34 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [264 

often endanger their lives, the protection of the inventions 
made by workingmen, the organization of mutual and pro- 
fessional education, which cannot be entirely instituted with- 
out the help of the men of the workshop, etc. 1 

On the 30th of March, 1868, the Minister of Com- 
merce and Public Works announced that without modify- 
ing the law on coalitions, the government will henceforth 
tolerate workingmen's organizations on the same grounds 
on which it had heretofore tolerated the organizations of 
employers. With this act began the period of toleration 
which lasted down to 1884, when the workingmen's or- 
ganizations were brought under the protection of a special 
law. 

The declaration of toleration gave free scope to the 
workingmen to form their syndical chambers. Some syn- 
dicats had been openly formed before. In 1867, the shoe- 
makers had formed a society — the first to bear the name of 
syndicat — which had openly declared that it would support 
members on strike and would try to defend and to raise 
wages. But only after the declaration of the government 
in 1868 did these societies begin to increase in numbers. 

While organizing for resistance, the workingmen during 
this period, however, again placed their main hopes in co- 
operation; the co-operative society of production was to 
them the only means of solving the labor question. As one 
of the delegates to the Workingmen's Commission of 1867 
put it: " Salvation is in association " (Le saint c'est V asso- 
ciation). 2 The main function of the syndical chamber was 
to promote the organization of co-operative societies. 

The revival of enthusiasm for co-operative societies dates 
from 1863. Men of different political and economic views 
helped the movement. It found supporters in liberal econo- 

1 Lagardelle, Evolution des Syndicats, pp. 218-9. 

2 Commission Ouvricre de 1867, vol. i, p. 28. 



265] THE LABOR MOVEMENT TO THE COMMUNE 3- 

mists, like M. Say and M. Walras; it was seconded by 
Proudhon and his followers, while a number of commu- 
nists took an active part in it. Profiting by the experience 
of 1848-50, the workingmen now adopted a new plan. 
The co-operative society of production was to be the crown- 
ing part of the work, resting upon a foundation of several 
other organizations. First the members of one and the 
same trade were to form a syndical chamber of their trade. 
The syndical chamber was to encourage the creation of a 
" society of credit and savings " which should have for its 
aim the collection of funds by regular dues paid by the 
members. Such " societies of credit and savings " had 
begun to develop since i860, and they were considered very 
important; not only because they provided the funds, but 
also and mainly because they helped the members to become 
acquainted with one another and to eliminate the inefficient. 

With a society of credit in existence, it was deemed nec- 
essary to create a co-operative of consumption. The pro- 
ductive co-operative was to complete this series of organi- 
zations which interconnected among themselves and which, 
supporting one another, were to give stability to the entire 
structure. 

The plan was seldom carried out in full. Co-operatives 
of production were formed without any such elaborate 
preparation as outlined above. However, many " societies 
of credit and saving " were formed. In 1863 there were 
already 200 of them in Paris; and in September, 1863, a 
central bank, La Societe dn Credit an Travail was or- 
ganized. Similar central banks were formed in Lyons, Mar- 
seilles, Lille and other large cities. 

In Paris the Credit an Travail became the center of the 
co-operative movement between 1863 and 1868. It subsi- 
dized successively U Association (Nov., 1864- July, 1866) 
and La Co-operation (Sept., 1866-Feb., 1867) — magazines 



36 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [ 2 66 

devoted to the spread of co-operative ideas. It gave advice 
and information for forming co-operatives. Most of the 
co-operative enterprises of the period were planned and 
first elaborated in the councils of this society. Finally it 
furnished the co-operatives with credit. Its business done 
in 1866 amounted to ioj4 million francs. 1 

In 1868 the co-operative movement, after several years 
of development, suffered a terrible blow. On November 
2nd, the Credit au Travail became bankrupt; it had im- 
mobilized its capital, and had given out loans for too long 
periods, while some of the other loans were not reim- 
bursed. The bank had to suspend payment and was closed. 
The disaster for the co-operative movement was complete. 
The Credit au Travail seemed to incarnate the co-opera- 
tive movement ; " and its failure made many think that 
the co-operative institution had no future ". 2 

The failure of the co-operative movement turned the 
efforts of the workingmen into other channels. They now 
began to join the " International Association of Working- 
men " in increased numbers and to change their ideas and 
methods. 

The " International ", as is well known, was formed in 
1864 by French and English workingmen. The French 
section, during the first years of its existence, was com- 
posed mainly of the followers of Proudhon, known as mu- 
tuellistes. The program of the mutuellistes was a peaceful 
change in social relations by which the idea of justice — con- 
ceived as reciprocity or mutuality of services — should be 
realized. The means advocated were education and the 
organization of mutual aid societies, of mutual insurance 
companies, of syndicats, of co-operative societies and the 
like. Much importance was attached to the organization 

1 P. Hubert-Valleroux, La Cooperation (Paris, 1904). PP- 14-17- 
2 P. Hubert-Valleroux, op. cit., p. 16. 



267] THE LABOR MOVEMENT TO THE COMMUNE 37 

of mutual credit societies and of popular banks. It was 
hoped that with the help of cheap credit the means of pro- 
duction would be put at the disposal of all and that co- 
operative societies of production could then be organized 
in large numbers. The Miituellistes emphasized the idea 
that the social emancipation of the workingmen must be 
the work of the workingmen themselves. They were op- 
posed to state intervention. Their ideal was a decen- 
tralized economic society based upon a new principle of 
right — the principle of mutuality — which was " the idea of 
the working-class ". 1 Their spokesman and master was 
Proudhon who formulated the ideas of mutuellisme in his 
work, De la C apatite Politique des Classes Ouvrieres. 

Between 1864 and 1868, the " International " met with 
little success in France. The largest number of adherents 
obtained by it during this period was from five to eight 
hundred. Persecuted by the government after 1867, it was 
practically dead in France in 1868. 2 But in 1869 it re- 
appeared with renewed strength under the leadership of 
men of collectivist and communist ideas. 

The communist ideas of this period were partly a re- 
vival and survival of the ideas of 1848, partly a new de- 
velopment in socialist thought. 

One current of communist ideas was represented by the 
Blanquists. Blanqui, a life-long conspirator and an ardent 
republican who had been the leader of the secret revolu- 
tionary societies under the Monarchy of July, took up his 
revolutionary activity again during the latter part of the 
Second Empire. A republican and revolutionary above 
everything else, he had, however, gradually come to for- 
mulate in a more precise way a communistic program, to 

1 P. J. Proudhon, De la Capacite Politique des Classes Ouvrieres 
(Paris, 1865), p. 59. 
* A. Thomas, he Second Empire, p. 332. 



38 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [ 2 68 

be realized by his party when by a revolutionary upheaval 
it should be carried into power. The Blanquists de- 
nounced the " co-operators " and the " mutuellistes " and 
called upon the workingmen to organize into secret so- 
cieties ready, at a favorable moment, to seize political 
power. Towards the end of the Second Empire, the Blan- 
quists numbered about 2,500 members in Paris, mainly 
among the Republican youth. 1 

The other current of communist ideas had its fountain- 
head in the " International " which Caesar de-Paepe, Marx 
and Bakounine succeeded in winning over to their collec- 
tivist ideas. The congresses of the " Association " in 
Brussels in 1868 and in Bale in 1869 adopted resolutions 
of a collectivist character, and many members of the 
French section were won over to the new ideas. 2 

The success of the " International " in France in 1869 
was the sudden result of the strike-movement which swept 
the country during the last years of the Second Empire. 
The members of the " International " succeeded in obtain- 
ing financial support for some strikers. This raised the 
prestige of the " Association ", and a number of syndicats 
sent in their collective adhesion. It is estimated that 
toward the end of 1869 the " International " had a mem- 
bership of about 250,000 in France. 

These facts had their influence on the French leaders of 
the " International ". They changed their attitude toward 
the strike, declaring it " the means par excellence for the 
organization of the revolutionary forces of labor ". 3 The 
idea of the general strike suggested itself to others. 4 At 
the Congress of Bale in 1869, one of the French delegates 

1 A. Thomas, op. cit., p. 332. 

3 E. E. Fribourg, U Association Internationale des Travailleurs 
(Paris, 1871). 
a A. Thomas, op. cit., p. 363. * Ibid., p. 358. 



269] TI ~1E LABOR MOVEMENT TO THE COMMUNE 39 

advocated the necessity of organizing syndicats for two 
reasons: first, because "they are the means of resisting the 
exploitation of capital in the present;" and second, because 
" the grouping of different trades in the city will form the 
commune of the future "... and then ..." the gov- 
ernment will be replaced by federated councils of syndicats 
and by a committee of their respective delegates regulating 
the relations of labor — this taking the place of politics." x 

Under the influence of the " International " the syndi- 
cats of Paris — there were about 70 during the years 1868- 
1870 — founded a local federation under the name of Cham- 
bre Federate des societes onvrieres de Paris. This federa- 
tion formulated its aim in the following terms : 

This agreement has for its object to put into operation the 
means recognized as just by the workingmen of all trades for 
the purpose of making them the possessors of all the instru- 
ments of production and to lend them money, in order that they 
may free themselves from the arbitrariness of the employer 
and from the exigencies of capital. . . . The federation has 
also the aim of assuring to all adhering societies on strike 
the moral and material support of the other groups by means 
of loans at the risk of the loaning societies. 2 

These organizations were entirely swept away by the 
events of 1870-71 : the Franco-Prussian War, the Procla- 
mation of the Republic, and especially the Commune- 
After 1 87 1 the workingmen had to begin the work of or- 
ganization all over again. But the conquests of the pre- 
vious period were not lost. The right to strike was recog- 
nized. The policy of tolerating workingmen's organiza- 
tions was continued, notwithstanding a few acts to the 
contrary. But, above all, the experience of the working- 

1 James Guillaume, L' Internationale, Documents et Souvenirs (Paris, 
1905), vol. i, p. 205. 

2 A. Thomas, op. cit., p. 352. 



4 o THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [ 2 yo 

men was preserved. The form of organization which they 
generally advocated after the Commune was the syndicat. 
The other forms (t. e., the Compagnonnages and the 
secret Societe de resistance) either disappear or develop 
independently along different lines, as the friendly societies. 
In other respects, the continuity of the labor move- 
ment after the Commune with that of the preceding period 
is no less evident. As will be seen in the following chapter 
the problems raised and the solutions given to them by the 
French workingmen for some time after the Commune 
were directly related to the movement of the Second Em- 
pire. The idea of co-operation, the mutuellisme of Proud- 
hon, and the collectivism of the " International " reap- 
peared in the labor movement under the Third Republic. 



CHAPTER II 

Origin of the General Confederation of Labor. 
(1872-1895) 

The vigorous suppression of the Commune and the 
political events which followed it threw the French work- 
ingmen for some time into a state of mental depression. 
Though trade-union meetings were not prohibited, the 
workingmen avoided the places which had been centers of 
syndical activity before the Commune. Full of suspicion 
and fear, they preferred to remain in isolation rather than 
to risk the persecution of the government. 

Under these conditions, the initiative in reconstituting 
the syndicats was taken by a republican journalist, Bar- 
beret. 1 Barberet was prompted to undertake this " hon- 
orable task " by the desire to do away with strikes. He 
had observed the strike movement for some years, and had 
come to the conclusion that strikes were fatal to the work- 
ingmen and dangerous to the political institutions of the 
country. His observations had convinced him that the Sec- 
ond Empire had fallen largely in consequence of the strike 
movement during 1868-70, and he was anxious to preserve 
the Republic from similar troubles. As he expressed it, 
strikes were " a crime of lese-democratie " 2 which it was 
necessary to prevent by all means. 

1 Barberet was afterwards appointed chief of the Bureau of Trade 
Unions, which was constituted as part of the Dept. of the Interior. 

"J. Barberet, Monographies Professionelles (Paris, 1886), vol. i. 
p. 16. 

271] 41 



42 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [272 

Barberet outlined the following program for the syndi- 
cats. They were to watch over the loyal execution of con- 
tracts of appenticeship ; to organize employment bureaus; 
to create councils of arbitration composed of an equal 
number of delegates from employers and from working- 
men for the peaceful solution of trade disputes; to found 
libraries and courses in technical education; to utilize their 
funds not to " foment strikes ", but to buy raw materials 
and instruments of labor; and finally, "to crown these 
various preparatory steps " by the creation of co-opera- 
tive workshops " which alone would give collectivities of 
workingmen the normal access to industry and to com- 
merce " and would in time equalize wealth. 1 

Under Barberet's influence and with his assistance syn- 
dicate were reconstituted in a few trades in Paris during 
1872. These syndicats felt the necessity of uniting into a 
larger body, and in August of the same year they founded 
the Cercle de V Union Ouvriere, which was to form a coun- 
ter-balance to the employers' organization U Union Nation- 
ale du Commerce et de I'lndustrie. The Cercle insisted on 
its peaceful intentions; it declared that its aim was "to 
realize concord and justice through study " and to con- 
vince public opinion " of the moderation with which the 
workingmen claim their rights." 2 The Cercle was never- 
theless dissolved by the government. 

The syndicats, however, were left alone. They slowly 
increased in numbers and spread to new trades. There 
were about 135 in Paris in 1875. Following the example 
of the syndicats of the Second Empire, they organized dele- 
gations of workingmen to the Exhibitions of Vienna in 
1873 an d of Philadelphia in 1876. But their supreme 

1 Barberet, op. cit., pp. 20-25. 

* Fernand Pelloutier, Histoire des Bourses du Travail (Paris, 1902), 
p. 35- 



273] ORIGIN OF THE FEDERATION OF LABOR 43 

effort was the organization of the first French Labor Con- 
gress in Paris in 1876. 

The Congress was attended by 255 delegates from Paris 
and 105 from the provincial towns. The delegates repre- 
sented syndicats, co-operative societies and mutual aid so- 
cieties. The program of the Congress included eight sub- 
jects: (1) The work of women; (2) syndical chambers; 
(3) councils of prud'hommes; (4) apprenticeship and 
technical education; (5) direct representation of the work- 
ing class in Parliament; (6) co-operative associations of 
production, of consumption and of credit; (7) old-age 
pensions; (8) agricultural associations and the relations 
between agricultural and industrial workers. 

The proceedings of the Congress were calm and mod- 
erate. The organizers of the Congress were anxious not 
to arouse the apprehension of the government and not to 
compromise the republicans with whose help the Congress 
was organized. 

The reports and the discussions of the Congress show 
that the syndical program outlined by Barberet was ac- 
cepted by almost all the delegates. They insist upon the 
necessity of solving peaceably all industrial difficulties, ex- 
press antipathy for the strike and above all affirm belief 
in the emancipating efficacy of co-operation. At the same 
time they repudiate socialism, which one of the delegates 
proclaimed " a bourgeois Utopia "- 1 

The syndicats held a second congress in 1876 in Lyons. 
The Congress of Lyons considered the same questions as 
did that of Paris, and gave them the same solutions. In 
general, the character of the second congress was like that 
of the first. 

The third Labor Congress was held in Marseilles in 
1879, an d presents a new departure in the history of the 

1 Seances du Congres Ouvrier de France, Session de 1876, p. 43. 



44 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [274 

French syndical movement. This Congress marked the 
end of the influence of Barberet and of the " co-operators " 
and the beginning of socialist influence. The Congress of 
Marseilles accepted the title of " Socialist Labor Congress," 
expressed itself in favor of the collective appropriation of 
the means of production and adopted a resolution to or- 
ganize a workingmen's socialist political party. 

This change in views was brought about by a concur- 
rence of many circumstances. The moderate character of 
the syndicats between 1872- 1879 na d been due in large 
measure to the political conditions of France. The cause of 
the Republic was in danger and the workingmen were cau- 
tious not to increase its difficulties. But after the elections of 
1876 and 1877 and upon the election of Grevy to the Presi- 
dency, the Republic was more or less securely established 
and the workingmen thought that they should now be 
more outspoken in their economic demands. 

The Committee which organized the Congress of Paris 
formulated these sentiments in the following terms : "From 
the moment that the republican form of government was 
secured ", wrote the Committee, " it was indispensable for 
the working class, who up to that time had gone hand in 
hand with the republican bourgeoisie, to affirm their own 
interests and to seek the means which would permit them 
to transform their economic condition." x 

The means to accomplish this task was co-operation. 
The belief in co-operation was so intense and general at 
this time that one of the delegates to the Congress of Paris, 
M. Finance, 2 himself an opponent of co-operation, pre- 
dicted a large co-operative movement similar to the move- 
ments of 1848-50 and 1864-67. The prediction did not 

1 Seances du Congres Ouvrier, 1876 (Paris, 1877), P- 9- 

2 Afterward one of the active members of the Office du Travail 



275] ORIGIN OF THE FEDERATION OF LABOR 45 

come true. Nothing important was accomplished in this 
field, and the hopes in co-operation receded before the im- 
possibility of putting the idea into practice. The critics 
and opponents of co-operation did the rest to discredit the 
idea. 

When the idea of co-operation had lost its influence over 
the syndicats, the ground was cleared for socialism. The 
Congress of Lyons had declared that " the syndicats must 
not forget that the wage-system is but a transitory stage 
from serfdom to an unnamed state." r It was at first 
hoped that this unnamed state would be brought about by 
co-operation. When this hope was gone, the " unnamed " 
state obtained a name, for the Socialists alone held out to 
the workingmen the promise of a new state which would 
take the place of the wage system. 

On ground thus prepared the Socialists came to sow their 
seed. A group of collectivists, inspired by the ideas of the 
" International ", had existed in Paris since 1873. 2 But 
this group began to attract attention only in 1877 when it 
found a leader in Jules Guesde. Jules Guesde is a re- 
markable figure in the history of French Socialism and has 
played a great part in shaping the movement. He had 
edited a paper, Les Droits de V Homme in Montpelier in 
1 870- 1 and had expressed his sympathy for the Commune. 
This cost him a sentence of five years in prison. He pre- 
ferred exile, went to Switzerland, there came into contact 
with the " International " and was influenced by Marxian 
ideas. 

On his return to France, Jules Guesde became the spokes- 
man and propagandist of Marxism or " scientific social- 
ism ". Fanatical, vigorous, domineering, he soon made 

1 Assoc. Profess., vol. i, p. 243. 

' Terrail-Mermeix, La France Socialiste (Paris, 1886), p. 51. 



46 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [276 

himself the leader of the French collectivists. Towards 
the end of 1877, he founded L'£galite, The first number 
of this weekly outlined the program which the paper in- 
tended to defend. " We believe," wrote L'Egalite, " with 
the collectivist school to which almost all serious minds of 
the working-class of both hemispheres now belong, that the 
natural and scientific evolution of mankind leads it irre- 
sistibly to the collective appropriation of the soil and of 
the instruments of labor." In order to achieve this end, 
L'Egalite declared it necessary for the proletariat to con- 
stitute itself a distinct political party which should pursue 
the aim of conquering the political power of the State. 1 

The collectivists found a few adherents among the 
workingmen who actively propagated the new ideas. In 
1878, several syndicats of Paris: those of the machinists, 
joiners, tailors, leather dressers and others, accepted the 
collectivist program. 

The collectivist ideas were given wider publicity and 
influence by the persecution of the government. In 1878, 
an international congress of workingmen was to be held 
in Paris during the International Exhibition. The Con- 
gress of Lyons (1878) had appointed a special committee 
to organize this international congress. Arrangements 
were being made for the congress, when the government 
prohibited it. 

The more moderate elements of the Committee gave way 
before the prohibition of the government, but Guesde and 
his followers accepted the challenge of the government and 
continued the preparations for the Congress. The govern- 
ment dispersed the Congress at its very first session and 
instituted legal proceedings against Guesde and other dele- 
gates. 

The trial made a sensation and widely circulated the 

1 L'Sgalite, 18 Nov., 1877. 






2JJ] ORIGIN OF THE FEDERATION OF LABOR 47 

ideas which Gtiesde defended before the tribunal. From the 
prison where they were incarcerated the collectivists 
launched an appeal " to the Proletarians, peasant proprie- 
tors and small masters " which contained an exposition of 
collectivist principles and proposed the formation of a dis- 
tinct political party. The appeal gained many adherents 
from various parts of France. 1 

The idea of having workingmen's representatives in 
Parliament had already come up at the Congress of Paris 
(1876). The Congress, it will be remembered, had on its 
program the question of the " Representation of the Pro- 
letariat in Parliament." The reports on this question read 
at the Congress are extremely interesting. The " moder- 
ate co-operators " and " Barberetists ", as they were nick- 
named by the revolutionary collectivists, insisted in these 
reports upon the separation which existed between bour- 
gois and workingmen, upon the impossibility of the former 
understanding the interests and the aspirations of the latter 
and upon the consequent necessity of having workingmen's 
representatives in Parliament. These reports reveal the 
deep-seated sentiments of the workingmen which made it 
possible for the ideas of class and class struggle to spread 
among them. 

The Congress of Lyons (1878) had pushed the question 
a step further. It had adopted a resolution that journals 
should be created which should recommend workingmen- 
candidates only. 

With all this ground prepared, the triumph of the Social- 
ists at the Congress of Marseilles (1879) does not seem so 
puzzling as some have thought it to be. The report of the 
Congress indicates the conditions which determined the 
character which this Congress assumed. 

1 Terrail-Mermeix. op. cit., p. 08. 



48 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [ 2 y8 

From the contact of workingmen-delegates from all civil- 
ized nations that had appointed a rendezvous at the Inter- 
national Exhibition, a clearly revolutionary idea disentangled 
itself. . . . When the International Congress was brutally 
dispersed by the government, one thing was proven : the work- 
ing class had no longer to expect its salvation from anybody 
but itself. . . . The suspicions of the government with regard 
to the organizers of the Congress, the iniquitous process 
which it instituted against them, have led to the revolutionary 
resolutions of the Congress, which show that the French 
proletariat is self-conscious and is worthy of emancipation. 1 

To a similar conclusion had come the Committee on 
Resolutions appointed by the Congress of Lyons. In the 
intervals between the two Congresses, it had a conference 
with the deputies of the Department of Rhone and could 
report only failure. The deputies, one of whom belonged 
to the Extreme Left, were against the limitation of hours 
of work in the name of liberty, and against the liberty of 
association in the name of the superior rights of the State. 
" The remedy to this state of affairs," concluded the Com- 
mittee, " is to create in France a workingmen's party such 
as exists already in several neighboring states." 2 

The Congress of Marseilles carried out the task which the 
collectivists assigned to it. A resolution was adopted declar- 
ing that the co-operative societies could by no means be con- 
sidered a sufficiently powerful means for accomplishing the 
emancipation of the proletariat. Another declared the aim 
of the Congress to be: " The collectivity of soil and of sub- 
soil, of instruments of labor, of raw materials — to be given 
to all and to be rendered inalienable by society to whom 

1 Leon Blum, Les Congres Ouvriers et Socialistes Frangais (Paris, 
1901), pp. 33-4- 
2 Ibid., p. 36. 



279] ORIGIN OF THE FEDERATION OF LABOR 49 

they must be returned." x This resolution was adopted by 
73 votes against 23. 

The Congress also constituted itself a distinct party 
under the name of the " Federation of Socialist Working- 
men of France ". The party was organized on a federalist 
principle. France was divided into six regions : ( 1 ) Center 
or Paris; (2) East or Lyons; (3) Marseilles or South; (4) 
Bordeaux or West ; (5) North or Lille ; (6) Algeria. Each 
region was to have its regional committee and regional con- 
gress and be autonomous in its administration. A general 
committee was to be appointed by the Congress of the Fed- 
eration, to be held annually in each of the principal regional 
towns in turn. 

After the Congress of Marseilles (1879) the leadership 
of the syndical movement, as has been said, passed to the 
Socialists. This led to a split at the next Congress held in 
Havre in 1880. The " moderates " and " co-operators " 
separated from the revolutionary collectivists. The former 
grouped themselves about L' Union des Chambres Syndi- 
cates Ouvrieres de France. They held two separate con- 
gresses of their own in 1881 and 1882, which attracted little 
attention and were of no importance. The Union des 
Chambres Syndicates confined itself to obtaining a reform 
of the law on syndicats. 

The Collectivists themselves, however, were not long 
united. The movement was soon disrupted by internal 
divisions and factions. At the Congress of Marseilles 
(1879) the triumph of collectivism was assured by ele- 
ments that had the principles of collectivism in common, 
but differed in other points. In Havre (1880) these ele- 
ments were still united against the " moderate " elements. 

iLeon de Seilhac, Les Congres Ouvriers en France (Paris, 1899), 
p. 47- 



5 o THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [ 2 8o 

But after the Congress of Havre they separated more and 
more into distinct and warring groups. 

The first differentiation took place between the parlia- 
mentary socialists on the one hand, and the communist- 
anarchists on the other. Both divisions had a common aim ; 
the collective appropriation of the means of production. 
They did not differ much in their ideas on distribution; 
there were communists among the parliamentary socialists. 
What separated them most was difference in method. The 
anarchists rejected the idea that the State, which in their 
view was and always had been an instrument of exploita- 
tion, could ever become an instrument of emancipation, 
even in the hands of a socialist government. The first act 
in the Social Revolution, therefore, had to be the destruc- 
tion of the State. With this aim in view, the anarchists 
wished to have nothing to do with parliamentary politics. 
They denounced parliamentary action as a " pell-mell of 
compromise, of corruption, of charlatanism and of ab- 
surdities, which does no constructive work, while it de- 
stroys character and kills the revolutionary spirit by hold- 
ing the masses under a fatal illusion." ' The anarchists 
saw only one way of bringing about the emancipation of 
the working-class; namely, to carry on an active propa- 
ganda and agitation, to organize groups, and at an oppor- 
tune moment to raise the people in revolt against the State 
and the propertied classes; then destroy the State, expro- 
priate the capitalist class and reorganize society on com- 
munist and federalist principles. This was the Social 
Revolution they preached. 2 

1 Pourquoi Guesde n'est-il pas anarchistef p. 6. 

2 On the anarchist theory, the works of Bakounin, Kropotkin, Reclus 
and J. Grave should be consulted; on anarchism in France see Du- 
bois, Le Peril anarchiste; Garin, I'Anarchie ; also various periodicals, 
particularly, La Revolte and Les Temps Nouveaux. 



2 8i] ORIGIN OF THE FEDERATION OF LABOR 51 

From 1883 onward the anarchist propaganda met with 
success in various parts of France, particularly in Paris 
and in the South. There were thousands of workingmen 
who professed the anarchist ideas, and the success of the 
anarchists was quite disquieting to the socialists. 1 

The socialists, on the contrary, called upon the working- 
men to participate in the parliamentary life of the coun- 
try. Political abstention, they asserted, is neither helpful 
nor possible. 2 The workingman believes in using his right 
to vote, and to ignore his attitude of mind is of no avail. 
Besides, to bring about the transformation of capitalist 
society into a collectivist society, the political machinery 
of the State must be used. There is no other way of ac- 
complishing this task. The State will disappear after the 
socialist society has been firmly established. But there is 
an inevitable transitory period when the main economic 
reforms must be carried out and during which the political 
power of the State must be in the hands of the socialist 
party representing the working-class. The first act of the 
Social Revolution, therefore, is to conquer the political 
power of the State. This transition period was called the 
" Dictatorship of the Proletariat." 

Within the socialist ranks themselves further divisions 
soon took place. In 1882, at the Congress of St. Etienne, 
the party was split into two parts; one part followed 
Guesde, the other followed Paul Brousse. The latter part 
took the name of Parti ouvrier socialiste revohitionnaire 
frangais — it dropped the word " revohitionnaire " from 
its title in 1883 — and continued to bear as sub-title, the name 
" Federation of socialist workingmen of France." Guesde's 
party took the name of Parti Ouvrier Frangais. 

The Parti Ouvrier Frangais claimed to represent the 

1 John Labusquiere La Troisitme Republique (Paris), p. 257. 
a L'Sgalite, 30 June, 1880. 



52 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [282 

" revolutionary " and " scientific " socialism of Marx. It 
accepted the familiar doctrines of " orthodox " Marxism, 
which it popularized in France. It affirmed its revolution- 
ary character by denying the possibility of reforms in cap- 
italist society and by insisting upon the necessity of seizing 
the political power of the State in a revolutionary way. 
In 1886 J. Guesde wrote as follows: 

In the capitalist regime, that is, as long as the means of pro- 
duction and of existence are the exclusive property of a few 
who work less and less, all rights which the constitutions and 
the codes may grant to others, to those who concentrate within 
themselves more and more all muscular and cerebral work, will 
remain always and inevitably a dead letter. In multiplying 
reforms, one only multiplies shams (trompe-l'oeil). 1 

Inability to carry out real reforms was ascribed to both 
national legislative bodies and to the municipalities. There- 
fore, 

if the party has entered into elections, it is not for the pur- 
pose of carving out seats of councillors or deputies, which it 
leaves to the hemorroids of bourgeois of every stamp, but 
because the electoral period brings under our educational in- 
fluence that part of the masses which in ordinary times is 
most indifferent to our meetings. 2 

The municipalities conquered were to become just so 
many centres of recruiting and of struggle. The Parti 
Onvrier was to be a " kind of recruiting and instruct- 
ing sergeant preparing the masses for the final assault 
to conquer the State — the citadel of capitalist society." 8 

1 Jules Guesde, Le Socialisme au jour le jour (Paris, 1899), p. 268. 

2 Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue, Le Programme du Parti Ouvrier, 
4th edition (Paris, 1897), p. 32. 

3 Le Programme du Parti Ouvrier, p. 52. 



283] ORIGIN OF THE FEDERATION OF LABOR 53 

For only a revolution would permit the productive class to 
seize the political power and to use it for the economic ex- 
propriation of capitalistic France and for the nationaliza- 
tion or socialization of the productive forces. Of course 
no man and no party can call forth a revolution, but when 
the revolution which the nineteenth century carried within 
itself arose as a result of national and international com- 
plications, the Parti Onvrier would be the party to assume 
the role of directing it. 1 

The Parti Oitvrier adopted a centralized form of organi- 
zation. It became in time the strongest and best organized 
socialist party of France. It was particularly strong in 
the Department du Nord and among the textile workers. 
It was also known as the " Guesdist " party, after its leader 
Guesde. 

The Parti Ouvrier denounced the members of the Parti 
Ouvrier revolutionnaire socialiste, or " Broussists," also 
thus named after their leader Brousse, as "opportunists and 
possibilists " because they believed in the possibility of re- 
forms and had said that it was necessary " to split up our 
program until we make it finally possible." 2 The nick- 
name, possibilists has remained as another designation of 
the Broussists. 

The Broussists cared little for the theories of Marx. 
They were disposed to allow larger differences of doctrine 
within their ranks and more local autonomy in their or- 
ganization. They ascribed much importance to municipal 
politics. They conceived the conquest of political power as 
a more peaceful process of a gradual infiltration into the 
municipal, departmental and national legislative bodies. 
But like the " Guesdists," they were collectivists and took 
the class struggle as their point of departure. 

1 Le Programme du Parti Ouvrier, p. 30. 
»L. Blum, op. cit., p. 75. 



54 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [284 

From the very outset, the Broussists concentrated their 
efforts upon gaining an entrance into Parliament and into 
the municipalities. They had a numerous following in 
Paris among the working population, and among the lower 
strata of the middle class. 

The split between Guesdists and Broussists was followed 
by another in the ranks of the latter. In 1887 the Brouss- 
ists succeeded in electing seven of their members to the 
municipal council of Paris. This led to internal difficulties. 
A number of party members were discontented with the or- 
ganization which they claimed was entirely " bossed " by 
its leaders. They grouped themselves in their turn about 
J. Allemane and came to be known as " Allemanists." The 
Allemanists accused the Broussists of being too much ab- 
sorbed in politics and of neglecting the propaganda and 
organization of the party. In 1890 they separated from 
the Broussists and constituted a socialist party of their 
own. The Allemanists, as they were called, absorbed the 
more revolutionary elements of the party and were the lead- 
ing spirits in some of the largest and strongest syndicats. 

Two more socialist groups must be mentioned in order 
that the reader may have a complete view of the socialist 
world in which the syndicats of France were moving dur- 
ing this period. These two were the Blanquists and the In- 
dependent Socialists. 

The Blanquists — known also as the Comite Revolution- 
naire Central — were held together by a bond of common 
tradition, namely, by their loyalty to the name of Blanqui, 
spoken of in the preceding chapter. The leaders of the 
Blanquists were men who had taken a more or less promi- 
nent part in the Commune and who had returned to France 
after amnesty was granted in 1880. They considered them- 
selves the heirs of Blanqui and the continuators of his 
ideas; but under the political conditions of the Third Re- 



285] ORIGIN OF THE FEDERATION OF LABOR 55 

public they brushed aside the secret practices of former 
times and entered into politics as a distinct party with a 
communist program. Their aim was also the conquest of 
political power for the purpose of realizing a communistic 
society and they approved of all means that would bring 
about the realization of this end. 

The group of Independent Socialists grew out of the 
" Society for Social Economy " founded in 1885 by Malon, 
once a member of the " International ". The " Society for 
Social Economy " was organized with the purpose in view 
of elaborating law projects of a general socialist character. 
These projects were published in the monthly of the So- 
ciety, La Revue Socialist e. 1 

The Society gained adherents among advanced Repub- 
licans and Radicals and entered into politics. It advo- 
cated the gradual nationalization of public services, laws 
for the protection of labor, self-government for the com- 
munes, etc. The party became an important factor in the 
political life of France. Some of the best known socialists 
of France have come from its ranks, as J. Jaures, Miller- 
and, Viviani and others. 

Amid these socialist factions, the syndicats were a cov- 
eted bit torn to pieces because everybody wanted the larger 
part of it. At their Congress of Paris (1883) tne "Brouss- 
ists " adopted a resolution that " the members of the Party 
will be bound to enter their syndical chamber or respective 
trade group and to promote the creation of syndical cham- 
bers and of trade groups where none exist as yet." 2 

The Guesdists in their turn had adopted a similar reso- 
lution at their Congress of Roanne in 1882, and at their 
succeeding Congress, in Roubaix (1884), they adopted a 

1 On the socialist groups of this period see Leon de Seilhac, Le 
Monde Socialiste (Paris, 1896). 

2 Seilhac, Les Congrcs Ouvriers, p. 124. 



5 6 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE j 286 

resolution to promote " as soon as possible the formation 
of national federations of trades which should rescue the 
isolated syndicats from their fatal weakness." * When 
the Allemanists separated from the Broussists, they, in 
their turn, made it obligatory for members of their party 
to belong to their respective syndicats. 

These acts, while promoting on one hand the organiza- 
tion of syndicats, on the other hand impressed upon the 
syndicats a political character. They were utilized for 
electoral purposes and made to serve the interests of the 
socialist group to which they adhered. The syndicats 
were drawn into the whirlpool of political dissensions and 
rivalry, and the effect was destructive for the syndicats. 
The acrimonious and personal polemics of the socialist 
leaders bred ill-feeling among their workingmen follow- 
ers; the invective and abuse filling the periodical literature 
of the socialist groups found an echo in the assemblies of 
the workingmen ; the mutual hatreds separating politically 
Allemanists from Guesdists, Guesdists from anarchists 
were carried over into the syndicats which were hindered 
thereby in their growth or entirely driven to disintegration. 
The adherence of a syndicat to any one socialist group 
generally repelled the non-socialists and enraged the ad- 
herents of other socialist groups, and often led to the or- 
ganization of rival syndicats in the same trade and locality. 
The literature of the French labor movement is full of in- 
stances of the disorganizing effect which these political dis- 
sensions exerted upon the syndicats. 

Economic conditions, however, were impelling the work- 
ingmen to union. Since the Commune, the industrial de- 
velopment of France had gone on without interruption, 
concentrating the economic powers of the employing 
classes. In the face of the economic organizations of the 

1 Blum, op. cit., p. 93. 



2 g 7 ] ORIGIN OF THE FEDERATION OF LABOR 57 

employers, the scattered and isolated syndicats were of little 
significance, and the necessity of a larger combination made 
itself felt. Besides, in 1884, a new law on syndicats was 
passed. This law authorized the formation of syndicats 
under certain conditions of which article 4 was obnoxious 
to the workingmen. This article 4 of the new law made 
it obligatory for every syndicat to send in the names and 
addresses of its administrators to the municipal authori- 
ties. In Paris they had to be sent to the Prefect of the 
Police. The workingmen thought that this condition would 
subject them to the mercy of the police and of the employ- 
ers, and they wanted to manifest their attitude to the new 
law. 

Under these conditions a general congress of syndicats 
was called in Lyons in October, 1886. Organized work- 
ingmen of various political opinions met here and at once 
the sentiments and needs which brought them together 
found expression in the report of the Commission which 
organized the Congress of which the following lines may 
be quoted : 

We are organized workingmen who have made a study of 
social problems and who have recognized that the diversity 
of doctrines contributes powerfully to divide us instead of 
uniting us. 

Slaves of the same master, bearing the same chains, suffer- 
ing from the same evils, having the same aspirations, the 
same needs and the same rights, we have decided to set aside 
our political and other preferences, to march hand in hand, 
and to combine our forces against the common enemy. The 
problems of labor have always the power of uniting the work- 
ingmen. 1 

The first question on the program of the Congress was 
the " prospect of a Federation of all workingmen's syndi- 

1 Seances du Congres Ouvrier, session de 1886, pp. 18-19. 



5 8 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [ 2 88 

cats." The discussion brought out that the delegates had 
different ideas on the future role of the Federation. Still 
the majority united on the following resolution: 

Considering that in face of the powerful bourgeois organiza- 
tion made without and against the working-class, it not only 
behooves, but it is the duty of the latter to create, by all means 
possible, groupings and organizations of workingmen against 
those of the bourgeoisie, for defense first, and we hope for 
offensive action soon afterwards; 

Considering that every workingman's organization which is 
not imbued with the distinction of classes, by the very fact 
of the economic and political conditions of existing society, 
and which exists only for the sake of giving assent to the will 
of the government and of the bourgeoisie, or of presenting 
petty observations of a respectful and therefore of a humiliat- 
ing nature for the dignity of the working-class, cannot be con- 
sidered as part of the workingmen's armies marching to the 
conquest of their rights; for these reasons, 

A National Federation is founded. . . .* 

The aim of the Federation was to carry on more effect- 
ively the struggle between the antagonistic interests of em- 
ployers and workingmen and to enhance the energy of the 
workingmen by making them present a larger front of re- 
sistance. 

" The National Federation of Syndicats," however, did 
not achieve its end. It soon fell into the hands of the 
Guesdists who utilized the organization for political and 
electoral purposes. The Congresses of the " National Fed- 
eration of Syndicats " were held in the same place and 
about the same time as were those of the Parti Ouvrier, 
were composed of the same men and passed the same reso- 
lutions. Besides, the " National Federation of Syndicats " 
never succeeded in establishing connections between the 

1 Congrcs National des Syndicats Ouvriers, Compte Rendu, pp. 344~5- 



289] ORIGIN OF THE FEDERATION OF LABOR 59 

local syndicats and the central organization (the Counseil 
federal national) and could, therefore, exert little economic 
influence. 

While the " National Federation of Syndicats " became 
a war-engine at the service of the Guesdists, 1 another cen- 
tral organization was created by the rivals of the Guesdists. 
This was t ie " Federation of Labor Exchanges of France " 
{Federation des Bourses dn Travail de France). The idea 
of the Bourse dn Travail may be traced back to the middle 
of the nineteenth century and even further back to the 
Great Revolution. 2 At first the idea was to erect a build- 
ing 

where the workingmen in need of work and the employers in 
need of workingmen could meet. The price of labor in each 
industry would be published there day by day. The quota- 
tions of the Bourse dn Travail would then be inserted in the 
newspapers. . . . The workingmen of an entire country, of 
an entire continent would be enabled in this manner to know, 
day by day, the places where work might be obtained under the 
most favorable conditions, and where they might choose to go 
to demand it. 3 

In 1875, the proposition was made in the municipal council 
of Paris to erect as a Bourse du Travail, a covered shelter 
for those workingmen who assembled in various parts of 
Paris under the open sky in expectation of employment. 

After the law of 1884 which legalized the syndicats, the 
Bourse du Travail is attributed larger functions. It is now 
conceived as a center for all the syndicats of a locality, 
where they could have their local headquarters, arrange 

1 Pelloutier, op. cit., p. 60. 

2 Charles Franck, Les Bourses du Travail et la Confederation Gen- 
erate du Travail (Paris, 1910), p. 17. 

3 G. de Molinari, Les Bourses du Travail (Paris, 1893), p. 257. 



60 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [290 

their meetings, give out information, serve as bureaus of 
employment, organize educational courses, have their lib- 
raries and bring the workingmen of all trades into contact 
with one another. The municipalities were to promote 
their creation and to subsidize them. 1 

The first Bourse du Travail was opened in Paris in 1887. 
The example of Paris was followed by other municipalities 
of France, and in a short time many of the larger cities 
of France had their Bourses du Travail. The Allemanists 
obtained the predominating influence in the Bourses du 
Travail, and they conceived the idea of opposing to the 
" National Federation of Syndicats " — which was an in- 
strument in the hands of the Guesdists — a " Federation of 
Bourses du Travail/' in which they would have the leading 
part. 2 The " Federation of Bourses du Travail " was or- 
ganized in 1892 with the following program: (1) To unify 
the demands of the workingmen's syndicats and to bring 
about the realization of these demands; (2) To extend and 
to propagate the action of the Bourses du Travail, in 
the industrial and agricultural centers; (3) To nominate 
delegates to the National Secretariat of Labor; (4) To col- 
lect statistical data and to communicate them to the adher- 
ing Bourses, and at the same time to generalize the gratui- 
tous service of finding employment for workers of both 
sexes and of all trades. 3 

The " National Secretariat of Labor " mentioned was 
created after the International Socialist Congress of Brus- 
sels in 1 89 1. The Congress of Brussels had proposed to 
create in all countries National Secretariats in order to 
unify the labor and socialist movement of the world. In 
France, the National Secretariat of Labor soon experienced 

1 Molinari, op. cit., p. 280. 

2 Pelloutier, op. cit., p. 64. 

• Seilhac, Les Congres Ouvriers, p. 230. 



2 gi] ORIGIN OF THE FEDERATION OF LABOR 6 1 

the fate of other organizations. In view of political dif- 
ferences, it was abandoned by the Guesdists, Independents, 
and Broussists. It therefore could not achieve the aim it 
had in view and lost all significance. 

Into this situation there now entered another factor, 
which was to determine the course of further groupings. 
This factor was the idea of the general strike. The idea 
was not new in the history of the labor movement and not 
original with France. It had been widely discussed in Eng- 
land during the 30's x and afterwards at the Congresses of 
the " International ". 2 It reappears in France in the sec- 
ond half of the 8o's and seems to have been suggested by 
the wide strike movement in America during 1886-7. ^ ts 
first propagandist in France seems to have been a French 
anarchist workingman, Tortelier, a member of the syndicat 
of carpenters. 3 

The idea of the general strike was hailed enthusiastically 
by the French syndicats. On the one hand it seemed to 
give the workingmen a new weapon in their economic 
struggles. It was seen above how reluctant French work- 
ingmen had been to use the strike during the 6o's and 7o's. 
Though forced by economic conditions to use it, the French 
workingmen still considered it a necessary evil which never 
fully rewarded the sacrifices it involved. The general 
strike seemed to repair the defects of the partial strike. It 
seemed to insure success by increasing the number of strik- 
ers and by extending the field of disturbance caused by the 
strike. On the other hand, the general strike suggested 
itself as a method of bringing about the Social Revolution. 

1 B. & S. Webb, History of Trade Unionism, pp. 1 18-122. 

2 Dr. E. Georgi, Theorie und Praxis des Generalstreiks in der mod- 
ernen Arbeiter-bewegung (Jena, 1908). 

3 H. Lagardelle, La Greve Generate et le Socialisme (Paris, 1905), 
p. 42. 



62 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [292 

This question was a vital one with the socialist syndicats. 
It was much debated and discussed and divided deeply the 
adherents of the various socialist and anarchist groups. 
" The conquest of political power," the method advocated 
by Guesdists and others, seemed vague and indefinitely 
remote; a general revolt, such as advocated by the anar- 
chists, seemed impossible in view of the new armaments 
and of the new construction of cities which made barricades 
and street fighting a thing of the past. These two methods 
eliminated, the general strike seemed to present the only 
and proper weapon in the hands of the workingmen for the 
realization of their final emancipation. 

In this sense, the principle of the general strike was 
voted for the first time in 1888 at the Congress of the " Na- 
tional Federation of Syndicats " in Bordeaux. The idea 
spread rapidly. The Allemanists declared in favor of it 
at their Congresses in 1891 and 1892. 1 Fernand Pelloutier, 
of whom more will be said in the next chapter, defended 
it successfully before a socialist congress in Tours in 1892. 
The same year, Aristide Briand appeared as the eloquent 
champion of the general strike before the Congress of the 
" National Federation of Syndicats " in Marseilles. 2 The 
Blanquists admitted the general strike as one of the 
possible revolutionary means. Only the Guesdists were 
against the general strike and at their Congress in Lille 
(1890) declared it impossible. 

The conception of the general strike that prevailed dur- 
ing this period was that of a peaceful cessation of work. 
The strike, it was argued, is a right guaranteed by law. 
Even if a strike were to spread to many industries and as- 
sume a general character, the workingmen would still be 
exercising their rights and could not be lawfully prosecuted. 

1 L. Blum, op. cit., pp. 129, 137. 

2 Le Congrts National des Syndicats, Compte Rendu, pp. 45 et seq. 



293] ORIGIN OF THE FEDERATION OF LABOR 63 

The general strike, therefore, would enable the working- 
men to carry out a Revolution by legal means and would 
make the revolution an easy matter. The general strike 
must mean revolution because a complete cessation of work 
would paralyze the life of the country and would reduce 
the ruling classes to famine. Lasting a few days only, it 
would compel the government to capitualte before the work- 
ingmen, and would carry the workingmen's party into 
power. Thus, a " peaceful strike of folded arms " (greve 
des bras croiscs) would usher in the Social Revolution 
which would bring about the transformation of society. 
The feeling prevailed that the general strike could begin 
any moment and that it assured the speedy realization of 
the socialist ideal. At first it was thought that the general 
strike could be organized or decreed, but this idea was soon 
given up, and the general strike came to be thought of as 
a spontaneous movement which might be hastened only by 
propaganda and organization. 

The conception of the general strike involved one more 
important point. It implied the superior value of the eco- 
nomic method of organization and struggle over the politi- 
cal. The general strike is a phenomenon of economic life 
and must be based on an economic organization of the 
working-class. 

On this conception of the general strike the Guesdists 
threw themselves with all the subtlety of their dialectics. 
They asserted that the idyllic picture of the social revolu- 
tion was too puerile to be taken seriously; that before the 
capitalists felt the pangs of hunger, the workingmen would 
already have starved. 1 They insisted that no such peaceful 

1 To meet this criticism the Allemanists argued that the militant 
workingmen could have " reserves " accumulated little by little which 
would allow them to await for some time the results of the general 

strike. 



64 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [294 

general strike was possible; that either the workingmen 
would lose their composure, or the government would pro- 
voke a collision. On the other hand, they affirmed that a 
successful general strike presupposes a degree of organiza- 
tion and solidarity among workingmen which, if realized, 
would make the general strike itself unnecessary. But, 
above all, they argued that the general strike cannot be 
successful, because in the economic field the workingmen 
are weaker than the capitalists and cannot hope to win; 
that only in the political field are the workingmen equal, 
and even superior to the employers, because they are the 
greater number. The conclusion, therefore, was that " the 
general strike is general nonsense " and that the only hope 
of the workingmen lay in the conquest of political power. 
The syndicat could only have a secondary and limited im- 
portance in the struggle for emancipation. 1 

The attitude of the Guesdists towards the general 
strike brought them into conflict with the " National Fed- 
eration of Syndicats " which voted in favor of the general 
strike at Marseilles in 1892. The conflict at first was 
latent, but soon led to a split in the " National Federation 
of Syndicats " and to a readjustment of the various ele- 
ments of the syndicats. This took place in the following 
way. 

In 1893 tne Bourse du Travail of Paris was authorized 
by the Second Congress of the " Federation of Bourses " 
to call a general trade-union Congress in which all syndi- 
cats should take part. The Congress was to convene the 
18th of July, 1893. About ten days before this, the gov- 
ernment closed the Bourse du Travail of Paris. The rea- 
son given was that the syndicats adhering to the Bourse 
had not conformed to the law of 1884. This act of the 
government provoked an agitation among the workingmen, 

1 G. Deville, Principes Socialistes (Pairs, 1896), pp. 191-201. 



295] ORIGIN OF THE FEDERATION OF LABOR 65 

the Congress took on a character of protest, and a large 
number of syndicats wished to be represented. 

The Congress of Paris adopted the principle of the gen- 
eral strike by vote, but in view of governmental persecu- 
tion, the necessity of unifying the forces of the working- 
men was thought to be the most important question. It 
was discussed at length, and the Congress adopted a reso- 
lution, that all existing syndicats, within the shortest 
possible time, should join the Federation of their trade or 
constitute such a federation if none as yet existed; that 
they should form themselves into local federations or 
Bourses du Travail and that these Federations and 
Bourses du Travail should form a " National Federation," 
and the Congress invited the " Federation of Bourses du 
Travail " and the " National Federation of Syndicats " to 
merge into one organization. 

The Congress of Paris also called a general Congress of 
syndicats for the following year in Nantes and commis- 
sioned the Bourse du Travail of Nantes to arrange the 
Congress. The " Bourse " of Nantes had already received 
a mandate from the " National Federation of Syndicats " 
to arrange its Congress. It therefore decided to arrange 
both Congresses at the same time and to make one Con- 
gress out of two. The National Council of the " Federa- 
tion of Syndicats ", where the Guesdists presided, pro- 
tested, but with no result. A general Congress of syndi- 
cats was held in Nantes in 1894. 

By this time the number of syndicats in France had con- 
siderably increased. According to the Annuaire Statis- 
tique, the growth of the syndicats since 1884 may be in- 
dicated by the following figures : 



66 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [296 

Year Number of syndicats Membership 

1884 68 

1885 '.. 221 

1886 280 

1887 501 

1888 725 

1889 821 

1890 1,006 139,692 

1891 1,250 205,152 

1892 1,589 288,770 

1893 1,926 402,125 

1894 2,178 403,440 

Of these, 1,662 syndicats were represented at the Con- 
gress of Nantes. This fact shows how keen was the in- 
terest felt in the idea of the general strike which, it was 
known, was to be the main question at the Congress. 

The Congress of Nantes adopted a motion in favor of 
the general strike, appointed a " Committee for the pro- 
paganda of the general strike " and authorized this com- 
mittee to collect 10 per cent of all subscriptions for strikes. 
The Guesdist delegates after this vote left the Congress and 
held a separate Congress by themselves. 

The majority of the delegates remained and voted the 
creation of a " National Council " which should form the 
central organization of all the syndicats of France. 

The " National Council " functioned unsatisfactorily. 
At the next general Congress in Limoges (1895) the " Na- 
tional Council " was abolished and the foundations of a 
new organization were laid. This new organization was 
the " General Confederation of Labor." 

The workingmen had come to recognize that political 
divisions were disastrous to the growth of the syndicats. 
The elimination of politics from the syndicats was, there- 
fore, adopted at Limoges as a condition of admission to 
the " General Confederation." The first article of the 
Statutes read: 



297] ORIGIN OF THE FEDERATION OF LABOR 67 

Among the various syndicats and associations of syndicats 
of workingmen and of employes of both sexes existing in 
France and in its Colonies, there is hereby created a uniform 
and collective organization with the name General Confeder- 
ation of Labor. 

The elements constituting the General Confederation of 
Labor will remain independent of all political schools (en 
dehors de toute ecole politique). 

The aim of the Confederation was evidently formulated 
to satisfy all conceptions. Its vague wording was as fol- 
lows: "The General Confederation of Labor has the ex- 
clusive purpose of uniting the workingmen, in the economic 
domain and by bonds of close solidarity, in the struggle for 
their integral emancipation." x 

The " General Confederation of Labor " incorporated 
the general strike as part of its program. 

The creation of the " General Confederation of Labor " 
may be considered the first important manifestation of the 
revolutionary tendency in the syndical movement of France. 
As Mr. Leon de Seilhac justly remarks, " the Congress of 
Limoges was a victory of the syndicalist revolutionary party 
over the syndicalist party of politics (Parti syndical poli- 
ticien). The victory was on the side of those who hailed 
the general strike, who asserted the superiority of economic 
action over political and who wanted to keep the syndicats 
independent of the political parties. These ideas contained 
the germ of revolutionary syndicalism and the Allemanists 
who emphasized them before others may thus be said to 
have pointed out the lines along which revolutionary syn- 
dicalism was to develop. 

The " General Confederation of Labor ", however, was 
not founded by Allemanists alone. Its organization was 

1 Seilhac. Les Congres Ouvriers, p. 286. 



68 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [298 

advocated by Blanquists and non-socialist workingmen. 
The Blanquists had always insisted upon the necessity of 
an independent economic organization and had refused to 
admit syndicats into their political organizations as con- 
stituent elements. The non-socialist workingmen, on the 
other hand, contributed to the foundation of the " General 
Confederation " because they felt the economic importance 
of a central syndical organization. 

The " General Confederation of Labor " took the place 
of the " National Federation of Syndicats ". The Gues- 
dists that had split off at the Congress of Nantes continued 
for some time to bear the title of " National Federation of 
Syndicats ", but their organization was of no importance 
and was soon lost in the general organization of the Parti 
Ouvrier. 

The " National Secretariat of Labor " died a quiet death 
(in 1896), after having expended the little energy it had. 
There were, therefore, now two central organizations : ( 1 ) 
The General Confederation of Labor, and (2) The Feder- 
ation of Bourses du Travail. In these the further history 
of syndicalism centers. 



CHAPTER III 
The Federation of Bourses du Travail. (1892- 1902) 

The Bourses du Travail met an important want in the 
syndical life of France. The local syndicats were generally 
poor and could accomplish but little in their isolation. The 
Bourse du Travail furnished them with a center where 
they could easily come to a common understanding and 
plan common action. 

The first Bourse du Travail, we have seen, was opened 
by the Municipal Council of Paris in 1887. In 1892 there 
were already fourteen Bourses in existence. Their num- 
ber increased as follows : 

Year Bourses du Travail 

1894 34 

1896 45 

1898 55 

1899 65 

1900 75 

1902 96 

Outside of Paris, the initiative of creating a Bourse du 
Travail was generally taken by the workingmen themselves. 
The local syndicats would elect a commission to work out 
statutes and a table of probable expenses and income. The 
project of the commission would then be submitted to the 
general assembly of the syndicats. The assembly would 
also elect an administrative council, a secretary, treasurer 
and other officers. The statutes, the list of adhering syn- 
dicats, and the names of the administrative officers would 
then be presented to the municipal authorities, and the 
299] 69 



yo THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [300 

Bourse du Travail, which in fact was a local federation of 
unions, would be formally constituted. 

In many places, local federations existed before 1887. 
These simply had to assume the new title to transform 
themselves into Bourses du Travail. The municipalities 
would then intervene and grant a subvention. Up to 1902 
inclusive, the municipalities of France spent 3,166,159 
francs in installing Bourses du Travail, besides giving the 
annual subventions. In 1902, the subvention received by 
all the Bourses du Travail of France from the municipali- 
ties amounted to 197,345 francs, and 48,550 francs besides 
were contributed to their budget by the Departments. 1 The 
readiness of the municipal councils to subsidize the Bourses 
du Travail was due mostly, if not always, to political con- 
siderations. 

Though soliciting subventions from the municipalities, 
the syndicats insisted on being absolutely independent in 
the administration of the Bourses. The first Congress of 
the Bourses du Travail in 1892 declared that: 

Whereas the Bourses du Travail must be absolutely inde- 
pendent in order to render the services which are expected 
from them; 

Whereas this institution constitutes the only reform which 
the workingmen have wrested from the ruling class; 

The Congress of Bourses du Travail of 1892 declares that 
the workingmen must reject absolutely the meddling of the 
administrative and governmental authorities in the functioning 
of the Bourses, — an interference which was manifested in the 
declaration of public utility ; 

Invites the workingmen to make the most energetic efforts 
in order to guarantee the entire independence of the Bourses 
du Travail, and to refuse the municipalities if they or the 
government desire to interfere with their functioning. 2 

1 Annuaire Statistique. 

2 Seilhac, Congrcs Ouvriers, p. 231. 



301 ] THE FEDERATION OF BOURSES DU TRAVAIL yi 

The municipalities, on the contrary, wanted to have some 
control over the funds they furnished. The result was 
more or less friction. In 1894, the Congress of the Bourses 
du Travail decided to demand that the Bourses be declared 
institutions of public utility ; this, it was thought, would put 
them under the protection of the law and make impossible 
any hostile act on the part of the administration. But the 
next year the fourth Congress of the Bourses du Travail 
reversed the decision of the preceding Congress and de- 
clared for complete independence. 

As the Bourses du Travail became more aggressive, the 
difficulties with regard to the municipalities increased. At 
the fifth congress of the Bourses du Travail (1896) in 
Tours, a report was presented showing the Bourses how 
they could exist without the subvention of the municipali- 
ties. The question of financial independence was brought 
up at later Congresses, but received no solution. The 
Bourses could not live on their own resources, while they 
continued the activities which brought them now and then 
into conflict with the municipal authorities. 

The program which the Bourses du Travail gradually 
came to outline for themselves has been classified under 
four heads : ( 1 ) Benevolent Services, or as the French term 
it Mutualite; (2) Instruction; (3) Propaganda; and (4) 
Resistance. 1 

The services of Mutualite included finding employment 
for workingmen out of work (Placement) , assistance to 
workmen who go from city to city in search of employ- 
ment (Viaticum), aid to other unemployed persons, sick 
benefit, etc. The Bourses paid particular attention to the 

1 On the Bourses du Travail see, F. Pelloutier, Histoire des Bourses 
du Travail, 1902; Ch. Franck, Les Bourses du Travail et la Confeder- 
ation General e du Travail, 1910; P. Delesalle, Les Bourses du Travail 
et la C. G. T. (Paris, 1910). 



72 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [302 

service of placement. Pelloutier, the Secretary of the Fed- 
eration of Bourses, wrote: 

The Placement is in fact the first and greatest advantage which 
the federative grouping can offer to the workingman, and it 
constitutes a powerful instrument of recruiting. In consequence 
of the instability of employment, the use of private employment 
bureaus for whose services payment has to be made, soon be- 
comes so onerous that many workingmen exasperated by the 
necessity of deducting from their future wages which are 
more and more reduced considerable tithes for the services 
of employment bureaus, prefer often — though losing thereby 
— to spend their time in search of a place which will secure a 
livelihood. Besides, it is known — and the proceedings of Par- 
liament have furnished decisive proof — that the habitual prac- 
tice of the employment bureaus is to procure the most pre- 
carious employments so as to multiply the number of visits 
which the workingman will have to pay them. It is there- 
fore easy to understand the readiness with which the unfor- 
tunates go to the Bourse du Travail, which offers desired em- 
ployment gratuitously. In this manner men who would hold 
aloof from the syndicats out of ignorance or indifference, en- 
ter them under the pressure of need and find there instruc- 
tion, the utility and importance of which escaped them before. 1 

The services of instruction comprised the founding of 
libraries, the organization of technical courses, the arrange- 
ment of lectures on general subjects (economic, literary, 
historical, etc.), workingmen's journals, bureaus of infor- 
mation, etc. 

The propaganda of the Bourses had for its general aim 
the intellectual development of the workingman and the 
extension of the syndical movement. The Bourses were 
to support the syndicats in existence, organize new ones, 
promote the adherence of single syndicats to their national 

1 Pelloutier, op. cit., pp. 87-88. 



303] THE FEDERATION OF BOURSES DU TRAVAIL 73 

federations, carry on a propaganda among the agricultural 
laborers and other functions of this sort. 

The services of resistance consisted in lending material 
and moral help to the workingmen in their economic strug- 
gles. The Bourses regarded themselves mainly as societies 
of resistance whose principal function was to support the 
workingmen in struggle. The other functions were con- 
sidered subordinate to this main service. 

Every Bourse carried out this program only in propor- 
tion to its means. The Bourses differed a great deal in 
number of adherents, in financial resources, in command of 
organizers, etc. Some consisted of a few syndicats with a 
few dozen members only; others comprised tens of syndi- 
cats with thousands of organized workingmen and with 
a budget running into the thousands. 

A few figures may help to form some idea of the extent 
of the services rendered by the Bourses du Travail during 
the period considered in this chapter. The number of posi- 
tions filled by the Bourses were as follows : 

Applications Offers Placed Placed 

Year for employment of employment at residence away from residenc: 

1895 38,141 17,190 15,031 5,335 

1898 83,648 45,461 47,237 38,159 

1902 99,330 6o,737 44,631 30,544* 

The service of viaticum was organized differently by 
different Bourses. Some paid one franc a day, others one 
and one-half and two francs. In many Bourses the travel- 
ing workingmen received part only of the viaticum in 
money, the rest in kind (tickets to restaurants, lodging, 
etc.). The reports of the Bourses presented to their Con- 
gress at Paris in 1900, contain some information on the 
subject. The Bourse of Alger spent from 600 to 700 
francs a year on the service of viaticum. The Bourse of 

1 Annuaire Statistique. 



74 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [304 

Bordeaux distributed during certain months about 130 
francs, during others, only 60; other Bourses spent much 
less. The following table presents the amounts spent in 
successive years by the Bourse of Rennes : 

Assistance 
Year Passing Workmen Francs Centimes 
1894 25 37 50 

1895 22 33 

1896 47 60 50 

1897 41 81 

1898 (till Sept.) ....32 64 

In organizing technical courses, the Bourses du Travail 
pursued the aim of fighting " the dominant tendency in 
modern industry to make of the child a laborer, an uncon- 
scious accessory of the machine, instead of making him an 
intelligent collaborator." * Again in this respect the ser- 
vices of the Bourses varied. In the Bourse of Etienne, 
597 courses of two hours each were attended by 426 pupils 
from October 1, 1899, to June 30, 191 1. The Bourse of 
Marseilles had in 1900 courses in carpentry, metallurgy, 
typography and others. The Bourse of Toulouse organized 
20 courses and had its own typographical shop. 

Nearly all Bourses organized their own libraries, some 
of which consisted of several hundred volumes, while the 
library of the Bourse du Travail of Paris contained over 
2,000 volumes. Besides, every large Bourse had its period- 
ical, weekly or monthly. 2 

The Federation des Bourses du Travail was formed 
in 1892 to systematize and to unify the activities of the 
Bourses. Though it owed its origin to political motives, 
the Federation soon devoted its main energies to the eco- 
nomic functions of the Bourses which it tried to extend and 

1 Pelloutier, op. cit., pp. 121-2. 

2 There were 23 in 1907. Franck, op. cit., pp. 127-8. 



305] THE FEDERATION OF BOURSES DU TRAVAIL 75 

to strengthen. This turn in its policy the Federation owed 
chiefly to Fernand Pelloutier, who became secretary of 
the Federation in 1894 and who remained in this post till 
his death in 1901. 

Fernand Pelloutier (1 867-1 901) came from a bour- 
geois family and was educated in a Catholic school. 1 He 
entered political life at an early age in a provincial town 
(St. Nazaire), as an advanced republican, but soon passed 
into the socialist ranks. Though a member of the Parti 
Ouvrier (Guesdists), he defended the general strike in 
1892 before a socialist Congress in Tours. This caused 
his break with the Parti Ouvrier. In 1893 ne came to 
Paris and here came under the influence of the Anarchist- 
Communists, whose ideas he fully accepted and professed 
to his last day. 

The appointment of Pelloutier as secretary of the Fed- 
eration of Bourses was to assure its political neutrality. 
As indicated in the previous chapter, the Federation owed 
its birth largely to the political interests of the Allemanists. 
The Federation, however, soon found itself composed of 
various elements — Blanquists, Guesdists, etc. — but the eco- 
nomic interests which stimulated the growth of the Bourses 
were strong enough to create a desire on the part of the 
workingmen to avoid political dissensions and quarrels. 
An anarchist at the head of the Federation seemed to guar- 
antee the necessary neutrality. 

Fernand Pelloutier realized the expectations placed in 
him. He was disgusted with politics and his " dream was 
to oppose a strong, powerful economic action to political 
action." 2 The Federation of Bourses became his absorb- 
ing interest in life. To it he devoted most of his time and 

1 On the life of Pelloutier see Maurice Pelloutier, F. Pelloutier. Sa 
Vie, son Oeuvre (Paris, 1911). 
* P. Delessale, Temps Nouveoux, 23 Mars, 1901. 



76 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [306 

energy. He proved himself a man of steady purpose, of 
methodical procedure, and of high organizing abilities. He 
has been recognized as the most able organizer of the work- 
ing classes that modern France has produced. 1 His ser- 
vices to the development of the syndicalist movement have 
been recognized by men of various opinions and political 
convictions. M. Seilhac wrote of him in 1897, " a young 
man, intelligent, educated, sprung from the bourgeoisie, 
has just entered the Federation as Secretary; M. F. Pel- 
loutier has led the Federation with a talent and a surety of 
judgment which his most implacable enemies must acknowl- 
edge. Having passed through the ' Guesdist ' school, M. 
Pelloutier violently broke away from this intolerant and 
despotic party and was attracted by pure anarchism. The 
Federation owes its rapid success in great measure to 
him." 2 

In 1892 the Federation was formed by ten Bourses out 
of the fourteen then in existence. Its growth was as fol- 
lows : 

Year Bourses Syndicats 

1895 34 606 

1896 46 862 

1897 40 627 

1898 51 947 

1899 54 98i 

1900 57 1,061 

1902 83 1,112 

The Federation was represented by a Federal Committee 
in Paris. Each Bourse had the right to a delegate in the 
Committee, but a single delegate could represent several 
Bourses. As the Federal Committee was in Paris, the dele- 
gates were not members of the Bourses they represented. 

1 Jane Stoddart, The New Socialism (London, 1909), p. 18. 
3 Seilhac, Congres Ouvriers, p. 272. 



307] THE FEDERATION OF BOURSES DU TRAVAIL yy 

They were chosen by the Bourses from a list sent to them 
by the Secretary of the Federation and made up of men 
either personally known by him or recommended to him. 
This gave rise to dissatisfaction, and it was decided that 
the secretary should complete the list of candidates with 
remarks on their political attachments, so that the Bourses 
might choose representatives expressing exactly their opin- 
ions. 

In this way the Federal Committee came to be composed 
of various political elements. In 1899 there were 48 
Bourses in the Federation ; of these three were represented 
in the Federal Committee by Blanquists, eleven by Alle- 
manists, five by Guesdists. The last named soon left the 
Federation ; the rest did not adhere to any party. " Within 
the group of their representatives particularly/' wrote 
Pelloutier, " must one look for those convinced libertar- 
ians * whom the Bourses have maintained as delegates re- 
gardless of the reproaches of certain socialist schools, and 
who, without fuss, have done so much for some years to 
enhance the individual energy and the development of the 
syndicats." 2 The Committee had no bureau, not even a 
chairman. The business was done by the secretary, an as- 
sistant secretary and a treasurer. The first received 1,200 
francs a year. Each session began with the reading of the 
minutes of the preceding session, and of the correspond- 
ence; then the discussion of the questions raised by the cor- 
respondence, inscribed on the order of the day, or raised 
by the delegates, occurred. A vote took place only in cases, 
" extremely rare ", when an irreconcilable divergence of 
views sprang up. The meetings took place twice a month. 

Pelloutier wrote: 
The suppression of the chairmanship and of useless voting 

1 The anarchists in France call themselves libertaires. 

2 Pelloutier, op. cit., p. 151. 



78 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [308 

dates only from the entrance of the libertarians into the Com- 
mittee, but experience soon convinced all members that be- 
tween serious and disinterested men there is no necessity of 
a monitor because everyone considers it an honor to respect the 
freedom of discussion and even, (without wavering from his 
principles) to conduct the debate in a conversational tone. 

The Federal Committee proceeded in a methodical way. 
Between 1894- 1896 it devoted itself mainly to propaganda 
and to organization. It invited the local syndicats and 
unions of syndicats to constitute themselves into Bourses 
du Travail. To guide them Pelloutier wrote a little pamph- 
let on The method of organizing and maintaining Bourses 
du Travail. After 1895 the Federal Committee thought 
the multiplication of Bourses too rapid. The Committee 
feared that the Bourses were constituting themselves with- 
out sufficient syndical strength and that they were putting 
themselves at the mercy of a dissolution or of an unsuccess- 
ful strike. 

The Committee, therefore, thought it wise if not to moderate 
the organizing enthusiasm of the militant workingmen, at 
least to call their attention to the utility of extending to ar- 
rondissements. sometimes even to an entire department, a pro- 
paganda which was till then limited to a local circle. Two 
or three Bourses per Department, wrote Pelloutier, would 
group the workingmen more rapidly and at the cost of less 
efforts than seven or eight insufficiently equipped and neces- 
sarily weak. 1 

In 1897, at the Congress of Toulouse, Pelloutier read 
two reports in which he invited the Bourses du Travail to 
extend their activities to the agricultural population and to 
the sailors. These reports reveal a thorough study of the 
conditions in which these two classes of the population 

1 F. Pelloutier, op. cit., p. 77- 



309] THE FEDERATION OF BOURSES DU TRAVAIL 79 

spend their lives, and contain indications how to attract 
them to syndical activity. Pelloutier recommended the 
Bourses to create commissions which should be specially 
devoted to agricultural problems and which should train 
propagandists for the country. He also recommended the 
institution of homes for sailors in the ports. 

Some Bourses acted on the suggestion of Pelloutier and 
since then dates the propaganda carried on by some Bourses 
among the wood-cutters, the wine-growers, the agricultural 
laborers, the fishermen, sailors and similar groups of the 
working population. 

From 1898 to 1900 the Federal Committee was trying 
to systematize the services of the placement and of the 
viaticum. The suggestion came from some Bourses, which 
particularly felt this necessity. Some Bourses had already 
been placing workingmen at a distance through correspond- 
ence. They wanted to generalize this by having the Fed- 
eral Committee publish statistics of the fluctuation of em- 
ployment in the various Bourses. On the other hand, the 
Bourses had difficulties with the service of viaticum. The 
diversity of conditions in this respect gave rise to dissatis- 
faction, while the Bourses were unable to control abuses. 
The secretaries could not know the number of visits paid 
them by workingmen, nor the amounts received by each. 

At the Congress of Rennes (1898), the Federal Com- 
mittee presented a plan of a " federal viaticum ", and in 
1900, the Office national de statistique et de placement was 
organized. The "federal viaticum" was optional for mem- 
bers of the federation, and though presenting certain ad- 
vantages for the Bourses, was accepted by very few of 
them. Organized in 1899, it functioned unsatisfactorily. 

The Office national began activity in June, 1900. It 
was organized with the financial aid of the government 
In 1900, after the Universal Exhibition, Paris was over- 



80 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [ 3I0 

crowded with unemployed workingmen, and the govern- 
ment thought it could make use of the Federation of 
Bourses to disperse them over the country. Before that, in 
November, 1899, the Federal Committee had addressed the 
government for a subsidy of 10,000 francs to organize the 
Office national.. In June, 1900, the Government granted 
5,000 francs. The Office began to publish a weekly 
statistical bulletin containing the information on the fluctu- 
ation of employment sent to the Federal Committee by the 
Bourses. The Office, however, did not give the expected 
results. In organizing these services, the Federation of 
Bourses always kept in mind the interests of the syndicats. 
It directed workingmen to employers who satisfied the gen- 
eral conditions imposed by the syndicats. The viaticum 
also served to diminish competition among workingmen in 
ordinary times, or during strikes. 

In all its activity the Federal Committee generally fol- 
lowed the same policy. It called the attention of one Bourse 
to the experiments and to the achievements of others; it 
made its own suggestions and recommendations and it car- 
ried out the decisions of the Congresses. It did not regard 
itself as a central organ with power to command. Con- 
stituted on a federalist basis, the Bourses expected from 
the Federal Committee merely the preliminary study of 
problems of a common interest, reserving for themselves 
the right to reject both the problems and the study; they 
considered even their Congresses merely as foyers where 
the instruments of discussion and of work were forged. 1 

The activity of the Federal Committee was handicapped 
by insufficiency of means. The financial state of the Fed- 
eration between 1892- 1902 may be gathered from the fol- 
lowing table : 

1 F. Pelloutier, op. cit., p. 154. 



3 i i] THE FEDERATION OF BOURSES DU TRAVAIL gl 

Receipts Expenses 

Francs Centimes Francs Centimes 

1892-1893 247 209 45 

1893-1894 573 95 378 95 

1894-1895 1,342 55 960 07 

1895-1896 2,380 05 1,979 

1896-1897 2,310 75 1,779 45 

1897-1900 6,158 75 5,521 45 

1900-1901 4,297 85 3,029 71 

1901-1902 5,54i— 85 4,320 80 

The Bourses paid their dues irregularly and Pelloutier 
complained that with such means the Committee could not 
render all the services it was capable of and that it was 
necessarily reduced to the role of a correspondence bureau, 
" slow and imperfect in its working." 

Whatever others may have thought of the results ob- 
tained by the Federation of Bourses, the leaders themselves 
felt enthusiastic about the things accomplished. Pelloutier 
wrote : 

Enumerate the results obtained by the groupings of working- 
men; consult the program of the courses instituted by the 
Bourses du Travail, a program which omits nothing of all which 
goes to make up a moral, complete, dignified and satisfied life ; 
regard the authors who inhabit the workingmen's libraries; 
admire this syndical and co-operative organization which ex- 
tends from day to day and embraces new categories of pro- 
ducers, the unification of all the proletarian forces into a 
close network of syndicats, of co-operative societies, of 
leagues of resistance ; consider the constantly increasing in- 
tervention into the diverse manifestations of social life; the 
examination of methods of production and of distribution 
and say whether this organization, whether this program, this 
tendency towards the beautiful and the good, whether this 
aspiration toward the complete expansion of the individual do 
not justify all the pride the Bourses du Travail feel. 1 



1 F. Pelloutier, op. cit, pp. 170-1, 



82 



THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE 



LO 



12 



This feeling and the preoccupation with socialist ideals 
led Pelloutier and other members of the Federation to 
think that the Bourses du Travail could not only render 
immediate services, but that they were capable of " adapt- 
ing themselves to a superior social order ". Pelloutier 
thought that the Bourses du Travail were evolving from 
this time on the elements of a new society, that they were 
gradually constituting a veritable socialist (economic and 
anarchic) state within the bourgeois state, 1 and that they 
would in time, substitute communistic forms of production 
and of distribution for those now in existence. The ques- 
tion was brought up for discussion at the Congress of 
Tours (1896) and two reports were read on the present 
and future role of the Bourses du Travail. One report 
was written by Pelloutier, the other was prepared by the 
delegates of the Bourse of Nimes, Claude Gignoux and 
Victorien Briguier (Allemanists). 

The report of the Bourse of Nimes starts out from the 
idea that no new plan of a future society need be fabri- 
cated ; that the Bourses du Travail show themselves already 
capable of directing the economic activities of society and 
that with further growth they will become more and more 
capable of so doing. The natural development of the 
Bourses, it held, leads them to investigate the number of 
unemployed in each trade; the causes of industrial pertur- 
bation, the cost of maintenance of each individual in com- 
parison with wages received; the number of trades and of 
workingmen employed in them; the amount of the produce; 
the totality of products necessary for the population of their 
region, etc., etc. Now, it further set forth, with all this 
information at hand, and with all this economic experi- 
ence, each Bourse could, in case of a social transformation, 
assume the direction of the industrial life of its region. 

1 F. Pelloutier. o/>. cit., p. 160. 



313] THE FEDERATION OF BOURSES DU TRAVAIL 83 

Each trade organized in a syndicat would elect a council 
of labor; the syndicats of the same trade would be feder- 
ated nationally and internationally. The Bourses, knowing 
the quantity of products which must be produced, would im- 
part this information to the councils of labor of each trade, 
which employ all members of the trade in the manufacture 
of necessary products. By their statistics, the Bourses 
would know where there is excess or want of production in 
their regions, and would determine the exchange of pro- 
ducts between the territories which by nature are adapted 
for some special production only. The report presupposed 
that property would become " social and inalienable " ; and 
the assumption was that the workingmen would be stimu- 
lated to develop the industrial powers of their regions and 
to increase the material welfare of the country. The re- 
port concluded : 

This summary outline gives those who live in the syndical 
movement an idea of the role which falls and will fall to the 
Bourses du Travail. It would not do to hurry decisions ; the 
methodical pursuit of the development of our institutions is 
sufficient to realize our aim, and to avoid many disappoint- 
ments and retrogressions. It is for us, who have inherited 
the thought and the science of all those who have come be- 
fore us, to bring it about that so many riches and so much 
welfare due to their genius should not serve to engender 
misery and injustice, but should establish harmony of inter- 
ests on equality of rights and on the solidarity of all human 
beings. 1 

The report of the Federal Committee, prepared by Pel- 
loutier, contains the same ideas but emphasizes some other 
points. " We start out from the principle," reads this re- 
port, " that the task of the revolution is to free mankind 

1 F. Pelloutier, op. cit., p. 163. 



84 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [314 

not only from all authority (autorite), but also from every 
institution which has not for its essential purpose the de- 
velopment of production. Consequently, we can imagine 
the future society only as a voluntary and free association 
of producers." ' In this social system the syndicats and 
the Bourses are to play the part assigned to them in the 
report of the Bourse of Nimes. 

The consequence of this new state, of this suppression of use- 
less social organs, of this simplification of necessary machin- 
ery, is that man will produce better, more and quicker; that 
he can, therefore, devote long hours to his intellectual develop- 
ment, can accelerate in this way mechanical progress, free 
himself more and more from painful work, and arrange his 
life in greater conformity to his instinctive aspirations toward 
studious repose. 

Pelloutier laid emphasis on the idea that this future state 
was being gradually prepared and was dependent upon the 
intellectual and moral development of the working-class ; he 
conceived it as a gradual substitution of institutions evolved 
by the working-class for those institutions which charac- 
terize existing society. He believed that the syndicalist 
life was the only means of stimulating the power and the 
initiative of the workingmen and of developing their ad- 
ministrative abilities. His report, quoted above, concludes: 
" And this is the future in store for the working-class, if 
becoming conscious of its intellectual faculties, and of its 
dignity, it will come to draw only from within itself its 
notion of social duty, will detest and break every authority 
foreign to it and will finally conquer rest and liberty." 2 

This conception of the syndicat has since become funda- 
mental with revolutionary syndicalists. Formulating it, the 

*F. Pelloutier, op. cit., pp. 163-4. 
2 Seilhac, Congrcs Ouzriers, p. 317. 



315] THE FEDERATION OF BOURSES DU TRAVAIL 85 

Federation des Bourses da Travail really laid the foun- 
dations of what later became revolutionary syndicalism. 
The " Federation of Bourses " also made the first step in 
the propaganda of anti-militarism and in outlining a policy 
of opposition to the State. The latter ideas, however, were 
at the same time developed in the General Confederation 
of Labor and will be considered in connection with the his- 
tory of that body in the next chapter. 

From 1894 to 1902 the Federation des Bourses du Tra- 
vail was the strongest syndical organization in France. 
Pelloutier claimed 250,000 members for it, but the figure 
is exaggerated. There is no way, however, of finding out 
the true figures. 

Conscious of its comparative strength, the Federation of 
Bourses at times ignored, at times dominated the General 
Confederation of Labor. These two organizations were 
rivals. The General Confederation of Labor had adopted 
at Limoges (1895) statutes according to which the Confed- 
eration could admit not only National Federations of Syn- 
dicats, but single syndicats and single Bourses. This was 
obnoxious to the Federation of Bourses. The latter wished 
that the General Confederation should be composed exclu- 
sively of two federal committees ; one representing the Fed- 
eration of Bourses; the other representing the National 
Federations of trade. Till this should be accepted, the Fed- 
eration of Bourses, at its Congress in Tours (1896), re- 
fused to give any financial aid to the General Confederation 
in view " of the little vitality " which it had displayed. 

The General Confederation of Labor modified its sta- 
tutes year after year, but no harmony between the two or- 
ganizations could establish itself for some time. In 1897, 
the Federation of Bourses joined the General Confedera- 
tion, but left it again in 1898. 

The friction was due partly to personal difficulties, partly 



86 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [316 

to the difference of spirit which prevailed in the central 
committees of the two organizations. After 1900, how- 
ever, the two organizations, though distinct, co-operated 
and the question of unifying the two organizations was 
more and more emphasized. In 1902, at the Congress of 
Montpellier, this unity was realized; the Federation of 
Bourses entered the General Confederation of Labor, and 
ceased to have a separate existence. 



CHAPTER IV 

The General Confederation of Labor from 1895 to 

1902 

The General Confederation of Labor has continued its 
existence under the same name since its foundation in 1895. 
Still the period from 1895 to 1902 may be considered separ- 
ately for two reasons : first, during this period the organi- 
zation of the Confederation under which it now functions 
was evolved ; and secondly, during this period the tendency 
known as revolutionary syndicalism became definite and 
complete. This period may, therefore, be considered as 
the formative period both from the point of view of or- 
ganization and from the point of view of doctrine. 

The gradual elaboration of organization and of doctrine 
may best be considered from year to year. The 700 syn- 
dicate which formed the General Confederation at Limoges 
in 1895 aimed to " establish among themselves daily rela- 
tions which would permit them to formulate in common the 
demands studied individually; they wanted also and par- 
ticularly to put an end to the disorganization which pene- 
trated their ranks under cover of the political spirit." ' 

The Congress held the following year at Tours (1896) 
showed that the aim was not attained. Only 32 organiza- 
tions had paid in the fee of adherence (two francs) as 
requested by the statutes adopted at Limoges. Of the 32 
only four, the Federation des Travailleurs du Livre, 2 the 

1 XI Congres National Corporatif (Paris, 1900), p. 35. 

2 Typographical Union. 

317] 87 



88 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [3^ 

Syndicat of Railway Men, the Circle of Machinists, and the 
Federation of Porcelain Workers, paid their dues regu- 
larly ; the rest paid irregularly or did not pay at all. The 
entire income for the year amounted to 740 francs. 1 

The National Council of the Confederation did not func- 
tion because the number of delegates elected by the adher- 
ing organizations was insufficient to constitute the commis- 
sions among which the work was to be divided. The few 
delegates that did attend the meetings quarreled for politi- 
cal and other reasons. The Federation of Bourses showed 
itself hostile, because the statutes adopted at Limoges ad- 
mitted Bourses, single syndicats, local and regional feder- 
ations. 

The " Committee for the propaganda of the General 
Strike " could also report but little progress. The Com- 
mittee had been authorized by the Congress of Nantes 
(1894) to collect 10 per cent of all subscriptions for strikes. 
The Committee, however, reported to the Congress of 
Tours, that the syndicats and Bourses did not live up to the 
decision. From December 1, 1894, to September 12, 1895, 
329 francs 75 centimes was collected; for 1895-96, 401 
francs 95 centimes. With such limited means but little 
headway could be made. 2 

The Congress of Tours tried to remedy the situation by 
making several changes in the statutes. Single Bourses 
were not to be admitted. This was a concession to the Fed- 
eration of Bourses, which was invited to join the Confed- 
eration; single syndicats were to be admitted only if there 
were no national federations in their trades. Each National 
Federation of trade or of industry could send three dele- 
gates to the National Council; syndicats and local federa- 

1 Seilhac, p. 328. 

J Seilhac, Congrcs Ouvriers, p. 325; Ch. Franck, op. cit., p. 323. 



319] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR 89 

tions, only one. Each delegate to the National Council 
could represent two organizations only, while formerly he 
could represent five. The National Council was to nomi- 
nate a bureau consisting of a secretary, assistant secretary, 
treasurer, assistant treasurer, and archivist. The work of 
the Confederation was to be divided among seven commis- 
sions. Dues were to be paid on a graduated scale according 
to membership. 

Besides modifying the statutes, the Congress of Tours 
discussed several other questions: eight-hour day, weekly 
rest, the general strike and the establishment of a trade 
organ. 

Indorsement of the general strike idea, defended by Al- 
lemanists and anarchists, was passed by the Congress with 
a greater majority than at previous Congresses. By this 
time, however, several modifications had taken place in the 
conception of the general strike. These were emphasized 
by M. Guerard who defended the idea before the Congress. 
Said M. Guerard: 

The conquest of political power is a chimera; there are at 
present only three or four true socialists in the Chamber of 
Deputies out of 585. Of 36,000 communes, only 150 have as 
yet been conquered. 

The partial strikes fail because the workingmen become de- 
moralized and succumb under the intimidation of the employ- 
ers protected by the government. The general strike will last 
a short while and its repression will be impossible; as to 
intimidation, it is still less to be feared. The necessity of de- 
fending the factories, workshops, manufactures, stores, etc., 
will scatter and disperse the army. . . . 

And then, in the fear that the strikers may damage the rail- 
ways, the signals, the works of art, the government will be 
obliged to protect the 39,000 kilometers of railroad lines by 
drawing up the troops all along them. The 300,000 men of 
the active army, charged with the surveillance of 39 million 



9 o THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [320 

meters, will be isolated from one another by 130 meters, and 
this can be done only on the condition of abandoning the pro- 
tection of the depots, of the stations, of the factories, etc. . . . 
and of abandoning the employers to themselves, thus leaving 
the field free in the large cities to the revolted workingmen. 

The principal force of the general strike consists in its power 
of imposing itself. A strike in one trade, in one branch of 
industry, must involve other branches. 

The general strike can not be decreed in advance; it will 
burst forth suddenly : a strike of the railway men, for instance, 
if declared, will be the signal of the general strike. It will be 
the duty of militant workingmen, when this signal is given, to 
make their comrades in the syndicats leave their work. Those 
who continue to work on that day will be compelled, or forced, 
to quit. 1 

And M. Guerard, applauded by the audience, concluded : 
" The general strike will be the Revolution, peaceful or 
not." 

However, as a concession to the opponents of the gen- 
eral strike, the Congress of Tours decided that the " Com- 
mittee for the propaganda of the general strike " should be 
independent of the Confederation. It was also from now on 
to collect only five per cent of all strike-subscriptions. 

The Congress of Tours also admonished the syndicats 
to abandon their political preoccupations which were held 
to be the cause of disorganization. 

These changes helped but little. During 1896-97 the 
Confederation counted n federations, 1 federated union, 
1 trade union, the Union of Syndicats of Paris, and three 
national syndicats. The Federation of Bourses declined 
either to join or to help the Confederation. The number 
of delegates to the National Council was again insufficient 

1 Seilhac, Congrcs Ourriers, pp. 331-2. 



321 ] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR g Y 

to constitute the commissions. The income for the year, 
including the balance from the previous year, amounted to 
1,558 francs. 1 

The Congress of Toulouse, therefore, decided to make 
new changes. Accepting the suggestion of the Federation 
of Bourses whose adherence was desired, the Confederation 
was to consist now of (1) the Federation of Bourses du 
Travail, (2) of National federations of trade and of in- 
dustry, and (3) of local syndicats or of local federations 
of trades which were not yet organized nationally or 
whose national federations up to this time had refused to 
join the Confederation. The Confederation was to be 
represented by the Federal Committee of the Federation of 
Bourses and by the National Council of the Federations 
of trade or industry. 

The Congress of Toulouse again declared that " the gen- 
eral strike is synonymous with Revolution," and decided 
that sub-committees for the propaganda of the general 
strike should be established in the Bourses du Travail to 
keep in touch with the General Committee in Paris. It dis- 
cussed several other questions: trade- journal, suppression 
of prison-work, eight-hour day, and among these, for the 
first time, the questions of boycott and of sabotage. 

The report on boycott and sabotage 2 was prepared by 
Pouget and Delessale, both anarchists. The report explains 
the origin of the boycott and of sabotage, and gives in- 
stances of their application in different countries. It refers 
in particular to the Go Canny practice of the English work- 
ingmen whose principle the report merely wants to gener- 
alize and to formulate. 

1 Ch. Franck, op. cit., pp. 226-7. 

2 Sabotage means the obstruction in all possible ways of the regular 
process of production; cf. ch. v. 



92 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [322 

Up to the present time [reads the report] the workingmen have 
declared themselves revolutionary; but most of the time they 
have remained on theoretical ground: they have labored to 
extend the ideas of emancipation, they have tried to sketch a 
plan of a future society from which human exploitation should 
be eliminated. 

But why, beside this educational work, the necessity of which 
is incontestable, has nothing been tried in order to resist the 
encroachments of capitalists and to render the exigencies of 
employers less painful to the workingmen? 

To this end the report recommends the use of the boy- 
cott and of sabotage, which should take their place by the 
side of the strike as the workingmen's means of defense 
and of offense. The report shows how these methods could 
be used in particular cases. Sabotage particularly, some- 
times applied to the quantity, sometimes to the quality, 
should bring home to the employer that the workingmen 
are determined to render " poor work for poor pay ". 

The report concludes : 

The boycott and its indispensable complement, sabotage, fur- 
nishes us with an effective means of resistance which — while 
awaiting the day when the workingmen will be sufficiently 
strong to emancipate themselves completely — will permit us to 
stand our ground against the exploitation of which we are the 
victims. 

It is necessary that the capitalists should know it: the 
workingman will respect the machine only on that day when it 
shall have become for him a friend which shortens labor, in- 
stead of being, as it is now, the enemy, the robber of bread, 
the killer of workingmen. 1 

The Congress adopted unanimously and with great en- 
thusiasm a motion inviting the workingmen to apply the 

1 E. Pouget, Le Sabotage (Paris, 1910), pp. 15-16. 



323] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR 93 

boycott and sabotage when strikes would not yield re- 
sults. 

During 1897-98 the Federation of Bourses and the Con- 
federation were to work together, but no harmony was 
possible. The report presented to the Congress of Rennes 
(1898) is full of complaints and of accusations on both 
sides. Personal difficulties between the two secretaries, M. 
Pelloutier and M. Lagailse, who was an " Allemanist ", 
sprang up; besides, the National Council and the Federal 
Committee were animated by a different spirit. The Fed- 
eral Committee evidently tried to dominate the National 
Council. The latter was weak. It counted only 18 organi- 
zations, and no new members were gained during 1897-98. 
The National Council did not function regularly; the ex- 
planation given was that as no functionaries were paid, 
they had but little time to devote to the business of the 
Confederation. The dues paid during 1897-8 amounted 
to 793 francs; the whole income was 1,702 francs. The 
treasurer thought that this showed that the " General Con- 
federation of Labor was in a flourishing condition." 

The " Committee for the propaganda of the General 
Strikes" admitted on the contrary that it had accomplished 
little. Only twenty Bourses formed sub-committees. The 
five per cent of strike subscriptions was not paid by the 
syndicats. Only 835 francs came in from this source; 
together with the income from other sources, the receipts 
of the Committee totaled 1,086 francs; of this it spent 822 
francs. 

During 1898 the Syndicat of Railroad Workers had a 
conflict with the railroad companies and a railroad strike 
was imminent. The Secretary of the General Confedera- 
tion of Labor sent out a circular to all syndical organiza- 
tions of France calling their attention to the " formidable 
consequences for capitalism " which such a strike could 



94 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [$24. 

have, if joined by all trades, /he circular formulated eight 
demands, such as old-age pensions; eight-hour day, etc, 
which "could be realized in a few days if the working-class, 
conscious of its force, and of its rights, was willing to act 
energetically." x 

The " Committee for the propaganda of the general 
strike " also took up the question. It sent out a question to 
all syndicats for a referendum vote. The question was: 
" Are you for an immediate general strike in case the 
railroad workingmen should declare a strike?" The re- 
port of the Committee to the Congress of Rennes com- 
plains that the syndicats vote in their Congresses for the 
general strike but change their opinions or their disposi- 
tion " when the hour for action sounds." 2 " It is dis- 
astrous to make such a discovery," says the report, 

when it was expected that by the strike of our comrades of 
the railroads, many other trades would be compelled by the 
force of events to quit work, and that this would have been 
the starting-point of the general strike, and possibly of that 
economic revolution which alone can solve the great problems 
which confront the entire world. 8 

The Syndicat of the Railroad Workingmen voted for a 
strike. But the government intercepted the strike order 
of the National Committee of the Syndicat, and the strike 
did not take place. 

The Congress of Rennes made new changes in the sta- 
tutes of the Confederation. The Federation of Bourses 
was to leave the Confederation. The latter was to be com- 
posed only of national federations of trade or industry and 
of national syndicats and to be represented by the National 

1 X Congrcs National Corporatif (IV de la C. G. T.), Rennes, 1898, 
P. 77. 

2 X Congrcs National Corporatif (Rennes, 1898), p. 334. 

3 Ibid., p. 334- 



325] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR 95 

Council. The " Committee of the general strike " was to 
be part of the Confederation, but was to be autonomous 
and was to live on its own resources. 

The Congress discussed a number of questions: Alcohol- 
ism, suppression of employment bureaus, election of in- 
spectors of industry, etc. Most reports on the various 
questions adopted by the Congress assert that the working- 
men must solicit the co-operation of their representatives 
in the legislative bodies of the country in order to obtain 
any reforms. But one report was presented which em- 
phasized the opposite idea of " direct action ". 

This report was presented by the " Commission on the 
Label, the Boycott, and Sabotage." The reporter on 
the boycott and sabotage — M. Pouget — notes the little 
progress that had been accomplished in the application of 
th£ce two methods since 1897, but again affirms their valid- 
ity and recommends them to the workingman; the report 
affirms that the menace, only, of sabotage is often suffi- 
cient to produce results. " The Congress," says the report, 

cannot enter into the details of these tactics; such things de- 
pend upon the initiative and the temperament of each and are 
subordinate to the diversity of industries. We can only lay 
down the theory and express the wish that the boycott and 
the sabotage should enter into the arsenal of weapons which 
the workingmen use in their struggle against capitalists on the 
same plane as the strike, and that, more and more, the direc- 
tion of the social movement should be towards the direct 
action of individuals and towards a greater consciousness of 
their personal powers. 

The report was adopted unanimously. 

The Congress of Paris (1900) again records but little 

1 X Congrts National Corporatif (Rennes. 1898), p. 302. 



96 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [326 

progress. In the interval since Rennes (1898- 1900) only 
a few new federations joined the General Confederation. 
The others, whose adherence was solicited, refused or even 
were not " polite enough " to make a reply. The adhering 
organizations paid irregularly; the decisions of the Con- 
gresses were not executed. The Commissions still did not 
function because the number of delegates to the National 
Council was small. The total income for both years 
amounted to 3,678 francs, of which 1,488 were dues paid. 

The " Committee for the propaganda of the general 
strike " had collected during this period (1898-1900) 4,262 
francs. Of this 3,172 francs were the five per cent of the 
strike subscriptions. It may also be interesting to note that 
the organizations which contributed most to this sum were: 
Union of Syndicats of Seine, 901 francs; the Union of 
Machinists of Seine, J2J francs; the Federation of Mould- 
ers, 536 francs; the Federation of Metallurgy, 457 francs. 
The Committee published thirteen numbers of a journal, 
" The General Strike ", and a brochure on the general 
strike. 

The general strike was again the subject of a long dis- 
cussion at the Congress of Paris. But the discussion was 
given a new turn. The question now was : " The general 
strike, its organization, its eventuality, its consequences." 
And the ideas that made themselves prevalent showed some 
new modifications in the conception. 

The question was given this turn because certain syndi- 
cats thought that the principle of the general strike had 
been sufficiently affirmed already and that it was time to 
treat the subject practically. The Commission appointed 
by the Congress to report on the question, said : " It is cer- 
tain that in the past several revolutionary circumstances 
which had chances of success had presented themselves." 
This idea that the general strike could break out at any 



327] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR gy 

moment and lead to a complete change in social conditions 
was still more emphasized in the discussion. 

A successful general strike, according to the majority 
of the delegates, does not presuppose a majority of organ- 
ized workingmen, nor big sums of money. A daring revo- 
lutionary minority conscious of its aim can carry away with 
it the majority of workingmen and accomplish the act of 
appropriating the means of production for society as a 
whole. And in order that the general strike " might be 
prompt and might lead us to our aim, the less money the 
better, even no money would be the best; everyone would 
take what he needs wherever he found it; the result would 
be the completest possible emancipation." x As one of the 
delegates expressed it : " Count exclusively upon the enthu- 
siasm (entrainement) of the working-class." 2 

The conception of the general strike attributes to the 
syndicat a revolutionary role: the syndicat is to take pos- 
session of the means of production in the name of 
society as a whole. The syndicat, thus becomes the instru- 
ment of emancipation par excellence. This does not ex- 
clude the parallel action of political parties. The latter may 
profit by the general strike and seize the political power of 
the State to co-operate in the transformation of society. 
But the syndicats are not to count upon this possibility; on 
the contrary they must see to it that the general strike re- 
mains absolutely independent of all political parties. The 
syndicats must themselves undertake the principal part in 
the economic revolution ; the new government, if one arises, 
will have to sanction the economic change accomplished by 
the syndicats. 

This emphasis upon the revolutionary and preponderant 

1 XI Congrcs National Corporatif (Paris, 1900), p. 198. 
■ Ibid., p. 113. 



98 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [328 

part to be played by the syndicats goes together with a mis- 
trust and defiance of political parties. " All politicians are 
betrayers," x exclaims one delegate. " In politics one has 
always to deal with intrigues," says another, and the same 
sentiment pervades the other speeches. Though not refus- 
ing to make use of all methods, " for the disorganization 
of capitalism," all delegates emphasize the necessity for the 
workingmen to rely mainly upon themselves and upon their 
syndical organizations. 

The majority of delegates recognize also that the general 
strike must necessarily have a violent character. Though 
a few still think of the general strike as of a " peaceful 
revolution," a " strike of folded arms," the majority reject 
this conception as childish and foresee the inevitable colli- 
sion to which the general strike must lead. 

All these ideas are briefly summarized in the conclusions 
of the Commission appointed by the Congress to report on 
the question. This Commission recommended leaving the 
" Committee for the propaganda of the general strike " as 
free as possible in its action. The Congress merely deter- 
mined the syndicats which were to elect the members of the 
Committee. The latter was now to obtain regular monthly 
dues for the continuation of its work. 

The revolutionary spirit which manifested itself in the 
conception of the general strike expressed itself also in the 
resolution of the Congress on the army. This resolution 
demands the suppression of permanent armies, and invites 
the syndicats to establish relations with the workingmen 
in military service, to invite them to social gatherings and 
to assist them financially (to establish the so-called Sou de 
Soldat). 

The same spirit characterizes the report of the Commis- 

L l XI Congrcs National Corporatif (Paris, 1900), p. 110. 



J 



329] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR 99 

sion which formulated the ideas of the Congress on the 
" practical means of realizing the international harmony 
of the workingmen." " Capital," reads the report, " in its 
various forms is international," and it is necessary that 
labor should also be organized internationally. The slight 
differences in conditions of life varying from country to 
country are not important. " The predominating fact 
everywhere, in all countries, is the division of society into 
two categories; the producer and the non-producer, the 
wage-earner and the employer." 

The report goes on to say that the idea of " fatherland " 
(patrie) is a means of protecting the strong against the 
weak, " an emblem of speculation, of exploitation," " a 
synonym of property," " a fiction for the workingman who 
possesses nothing." * The practical conclusion of the Com- 
mission is to bring together the wage-earners of all coun- 
tries in an international organization which should be 
represented by an international secretariat. 

During 1 900-1 the Confederation displayed but little 
more activity than before. The National Council employed 
a permanent employee to attend to the business of the Con- 
federation, at first for two, then for four hours a day at a 
remuneration of 50 and then 100 francs a month. In De- 
cember, 1900, the Confederation began also to publish its 
own weekly, La Voix du Peuple. Since 1896 the question 
of a trade-journal had been on the order of the day. It 
was discussed at every Congress and various plans were 
recommended in order to obtain the financial means for a 
daily. The Congress of Paris, in view of the financial im- 
possibility of starting a daily and recognizing that " it was 
more than ever necessary to create a revolutionary syn- 
dicalist organ," decided to publish a weekly. One of the 
Commissions of the National Council was to attend to it. 

1 XI Congrte National Corporatif (Paris, 1900), p. 205. 



1m 



IOO THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [330 

The Voix du Peuple, however, was not in a satisfactory 
condition at the time of the Congress of Lyons (1901). 
Pouget, the editor of the paper and the secretary of the 
Commission of the Voix du Peuple, complains that the 
Voix du Peuple, " suffers from the apathy and the negli- 
gence of the comrades." Only 260 syndicats subscribed 
for the paper (out of 2,700 syndicats then in existence). 
In Paris only 600 copies were sold weekly. The finances 
showed a deficit for the year of over 6,000 francs. The 
number of copies printed fell from 12,000-14,000 during 
the first months to 800 during the later months. 

The secretary of the Confederation, M. Guerard, also 
complains that the " Confederation is anaemic for lack of 
means." The twenty organizations — federations and syn- 
dicats — which adhered to the Confederation during 1900- 
190 1 paid in 1,478 francs. The total income was 4,125 
francs. With such limited means the Confederation could 
do nothing. The Congress of Lyons (1901) — where all 
these reports were read — was provided for by a subvention 
from the municipality of Lyons which appropriated 7,000 
francs for the purpose. 

The Congress of Lyons, nevertheless, showed that the 
Confederation was beginning to feel a little more confidence 
in its future. The Congress decided that henceforth only 
syndicats adhering to the Confederation should take part 
in its Congresses. Before that all syndicats were invited 
to send a delegate or their mandate to the Congresses of 
the Confederation. The Congresses, therefore, did not re- 
veal the strength of the Confederation, nor could the de- 
cisions taken have a binding character. The Congresses 
were significant, however, as revealing the state of mind of 
a large part of the organized workingmen of the time. 

The Congress of Lyons decided to do away with this 



331] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR IO i 

condition and to give the Congresses of the Confederation 
a more coherent and binding character. 

Another decision taken by the Congress of Lyons was to 
admit local and regional federations of syndicats. This was 
directed against the Federation of Bourses. Though more 
friendly since 1900, the relations between the two organi- 
zations still gave trouble. The question of unity, however, 
was urged by many workingmen, and the Congress decided 
to call a special Congress for 1902 to solve this problem. 

The Congress of Lyons revealed the further progress 
of revolutionary ideas among the delegates. There were 
226 delegates; these represented 26 Bourses and 8 local 
federations, comprising 1,035 syndicats with 245,000 mem- 
bers ; * eight regional federations composed of 264 syndi- 
cats with 36,000 members; 8 federations of trade or in- 
dustry counting 507 syndicats with 196,000 members; 492 
syndicats with 60,000 workingmen were represented di- 
rectly. The exact number of syndicats and of working- 
men represented cannot be obtained from these figures, 
because one syndicat could be represented several times in a 
local federation, in a Bourse, and in the federation of trade. 
The delegates, however, came from different parts of the 
country and were numerous enough to show that the ideas 
they expressed were accepted by a considerable number of 
French workingmen. 

Of the questions discussed at Lyons three have a particu- 

1 The growth of syndicats in France since 1895 is shown in the fol- 
lowing table: 

Year Syndicats Members 

1895 2,163 419,781 

1896 2,243 422,777 

1898 2,324 437,793 

1899 2,361 419,761 

1900 2,685 492,647 

1901 3,287 588,832 



102 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [332 

lar significance as showing the revolutionary tendency 
which the Confederation was taking. These are the ques- 
tions of the general strike, of labor-laws, and of the rela- 
tions to political parties. 

The " Committee for the propaganda of the General 
Strike " reported more activity for the year 1 900-1 and 
greater success in its work. The Committee published a 
brochure on the General Strike of which 50,000 copies were 
distributed. It collected over 1,500 francs in monthly dues, 
and its total income amounted to 2,447 francs. It was in 
touch with a number of sub-committees in the different 
Bourses du Travail, arranged a number of meetings on var- 
ious occasions, and lent its support to some strikes. The 
Committee affirmed that the idea of the general strike had 
spread widely during the year and attributed this fact to 
the big strikes which had taken place in France after the 
International Exhibition of 1900 and which had thrown the 
workingmen into a state of agitation. 

At the same time the Congress of Lyons was being held, 
the miners were threatening to strike, if their demands 
were not granted by the companies. The delegate of the 
miners was at the Congress, and the discussion that took 
place under these conditions was very characteristic. 

The Commission on the general strike which consisted 
of fifteen members reported : 

The idea of the general strike is sufficiently understood to-day. 
In repeatedly putting off the date of its coming, we risk dis- 
crediting it forever by enervating the revolutionary energies. 

What better occasion to realize it! 

The miners will give the signal on the first of November; 
the working-class — in case of a revolution — counts upon this 
movement which must bring them their economic liberation. 

And the report of the Commission goes on to point out 



333] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR 103 

the conditions which in its opinion indicate " that the 
moment has come to try the general strike {fairc la Greve 
generate) with strong chances of success." x 

The delegate from the miners said : " If you wish to join 
us, we will be able not only to strike, but to bring about the 
revolution; if we were made sure of the co-operation of all 
trades, even if it were necessary to wait for it two, three, or 
even six months, we are ready to grant you this corices- 
sion." 2 

The following motion was then adopted : 

The Congress declares that the General Strike cannot be the 
means merely of obtaining amelioration for any category of 
workingmen. 

Its aim can be only the complete emancipation of the pro- 
letariat through the violent expropriation of the capitalist class. 

The Congress, in view of the situation, declares that the 
movement which may take place in favor of the miners, the 
importance or character of which nobody can foresee and 
which may go to the point of a general emancipation, will be 
in any case a movement of solidarity which will not impair in 
the least the revolutionary principle of the general strike of 
all workingmen. 3 

The delegate of the Typographical Union {La Federa- 
tion dn Livre) combated the idea of the general strike and 
argued that it was impossible in view of the small number 
of organized workingmen. To prove his case, he brought 
forward the following table showing the number of or- 
ganized workingmen in the main branches of industry. The 
figures, taken from the Annuaire Statistique for 1901, pub- 
lished by the Office du Travail, are only approximate : 

1 XII Congrcs National Corporatif (Lyons, 1901), p. 170. 
* Ibid., pp. 177-8. 8 Ibid., p. 179. 



104 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [334 

Number of Number of Percentage 

Workingmen Orgarnzed 

Workers 

Total number of workingmen Men, 545,362 

(not including agricultural, Women, 43,470 

domestic, state employees, 

professional, etc.) 3,285,911 Total, 588,832 16.59 

DISTRIBUTION BY INDUSTRIES 

Mines 150,823 91,531 60 

Alimentation 223.348 21,820 10 

Chemical Industries 68,059 23,564 34 

Typography and Lithography.. 54*326 17,040 31 

Textile 622,582 54,828 9 

Clothing, etc 400,699 14,131 3^ 

Leather 130,118 '9,298 14 

Metal 443.741 94,^22 21 

Building 611,701 69,107 II 

Transportation 740,941 152,041 20 

This argument had no effect on the Congress. It was re- 
jected as of no importance because the minority of or- 
ganized workingmen could carry away with it the majority. 

The question of labor laws was the subject of an ani- 
mated discussion at the Congress because of its importance. 
The answer given to this question was to determine the at- 
titude of the General Confederation to legislative reforms 
and to the State in general. 

The question was a very practical one. The government 
of Waldeck-Rousseau (22 June, 1899-6 June, 1902), in 
which the socialist, Millerand, was Minister of Commerce 
and Industry, outlined a number of labor laws which 
touched upon the most vital questions of the labor move- 
ment. The most important of these law-projects were on 
strikes and arbitration, on the composition of the superior 
Council of Labor, on the institution of Councils of Labor, 
and on the modification of the law of 1884. 

The policy of the government in planning these laws was 
clear and expressly stated. It was the continuation and ac- 



335] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR I0 $ 

centuation of the policy which in 1884 guided M. Waldeck- 
Rousseau, then Minister of the Interior in the Cabinet of 
Jules Ferry, and which then found partial expression in the 
ministerial circular on the application of the new law on 
syndicats. 

This " Circular ", sent out to the Prefects August 25, 
1884, pointed out to the Prefects that it was the duty of 
the State not merely to watch over the strict observation 
of the law, but " to favor the spirit of association " among 
the workingmen and " to stimulate " the latter to make use 
of the new right. In the conception of the government the 
syndicats were to be " less a weapon of struggle " than " an 
instrument of material, moral and intellectual progress." 
It was " the wish of the Government and of the Chambers 
to see the propagation, in the largest possible measure, of 
the trade associations and of the institutions which they are 
destined to engender " (such as old-age pension funds, mu- 
tual credit banks, libraries, co-operative societies, etc.) and 
the government expected the Prefects " to lend active as- 
sistance " in the organization of syndicats and in the crea- 
tion of syndical institutions. 1 

The aim of Waldeck-Rousseau was to bring about the 
" alliance of the bourgeoisie and of the working-class " 2 
which Gambetta and other republican statesmen had untir- 
ingly preached as the only condition of maintaining the Re- 
public. In the period 1899- 1902 this policy seemed still 
more indispensable. It was the time when the agitation 
caused by the Dreyfus affair assumed the character of a 
struggle between the republican and anti-republican forces 
of France. Republicans, Radicals, Socialists, and Anar- 

1 See the "Circulaire" in G. Severac, Guide Pratique des Syndicats 
Professionals (Paris, 1908), pp. 125-136. 

* G. Hanoteaux, Modern France (tr. by J. C. Tarver, New York, 
1903-09), vol. ii, p. 181. 



106 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [336 

chists were righting hand in hand against Monarchists, 
Nationalists, Anti-Semites and Clericals. The cabinet of 
Waldeck-Rousseau constituted itself a " Cabinet of Re- 
publican Defense " and it sought to attain its end by 
securing the support of all republican elements of the coun- 
try. This was the cause which prompted Waldeck-Rousseau 
to invite a socialist, Millerand, to enter his cabinet and to 
accentuate his policy of attaching the working-class to the 
Republic by a series of protective labor-laws. 

The policy of the Government was clearly expressed by 
Millerand in the Chamber of Deputies on November 23, 
1899. " It has appeared to me," said he, " that the best 
means for bringing back the working masses to the Re- 
public, is to show them not by words, but by facts, that the 
republican government is above everything else the govern- 
ment of the small and of the weak." x 

The facts by which M. Millerand undertook to show this 
were a number of decrees by which the government tried 
to enforce a stricter observation of labor-laws already in 
existence and a series of new law-projects for the future 
protection of labor, such as the bill on a ten-hour day, 
which became law on March 30, 1900. As M. Millerand 
expressed it, this law was " a measure of moralization, of 
solidarity, and of social pacification." 

Social pacification was the supreme aim of M. Millerand 
and of the government. M. Millerand hoped to attain this 
by calling workingmen to participation in the legislative 
activities of the Republic, by accustoming them to peace- 
able discussions with employers, and by regulating the 
more violent forms of the economic struggle. 

A decree from September 1, 1899, modified the constitu- 
tion of the Superior Council of Labor, in existence since 

1 A. Lavy, L'Oeuvre de Millerand (Paris, 1902), p. 2. 



337] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR i Q y 

1 89 1, so that it should henceforth consist of 22 elected 
workingmen, 22 elected employers and 22 members ap- 
pointed by the Minister from among the deputies of the 
Chamber, the senators and other persons representing "gen- 
eral interests." The Superior Council of Labor was " an 
instrument of study, of information and of consultation " 
in matters of labor legislation. It studied law-projects af- 
fecting the conditions of labor, made its own suggestions 
to the government, but had no legislative powers. 

The decree of M. Millerand was particularly significant 
in one respect : it called upon the workingmen organized in 
the syndicats to elect fifteen members of the Superior Coun- 
cil of Labor. M. Millerand pointed out the significance of 
this measure in a speech delivered on June 5, 1900. Said 
he: 

The workingmen are henceforth warned, that in order to 
participate through delegates sprung from their own ranks 
in the elaboration of economic reforms which concern 
them most, it is necessary and sufficient that they enter 
the ranks of that great army of which the syndicats are the 
battalions. How can they refuse to do this? By inducing 
them to do so we believe that we are defending their legitimate 
interests at the same time that we are serving the cause of 
social peace in this country. 1 

The " Councils of Labor " were organized by two de- 
crees from September 17, 1900, and from January 2, 1901. 
Composed of an equal number of workingmen and of em- 
ployers these Councils had for their principal mission to 
enlighten the government, as well as those immediately in- 
terested, workingmen and employers, on the actual and 
necessary conditions of labor, to facilitate thereby syndical 
harmony and general agreement between the interested 
parties, to furnish in cases of collective conflicts competent 

1 A. Lavy, op. cii., p. 66. 



108 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [338 

mediators, and to inform the public authorities on the 
effects produced by labor legislation. 1 

M. Millerand emphasized that the Councils of Labor 
were to bring workingmen and employers together for the 
discussion of " their general interests " and that this new 
institution would be one more motive for the utilization of 
the law of 1884 on syndicats. " To encourage by all means 
the formation of these trade-associations, so useful for the 
progress of social peace," wrote the Minister in his decree, 
"is a task which a republican government cannot neglect." 2 

To enlarge the possible operations of the syndicats, the 
government also introduced a bill into the Chamber (No- 
vember 14, 1899) which contained several modifications 
of the law of 1884. This bill proposed to extend the com- 
mercial capacities of the syndicat and to grant the syndicat 
the rights of a juridical person. 

To complete the series of measures which were to im- 
part a peaceful character to the syndical movement, M. 
Millerand introduced into the chamber a bill (November 
15, 1900) on the regulation of strikes and on arbitration. 
This law-project proposed a complicated mechanism for 
the settlement of economic conflicts. It hinged on the 
principle that strikes should be decided by secret ballot and 
by a majority vote renewed at brief intervals by all work- 
ingmen concerned; permanent arbitration councils in the 
industrial establishments were part of the mechanism. 8 

Toward this series of labor laws the Congress of Lyons 
was to define its attitude. The principle of the Superior 
Council of Labor was accepted by a majority of 258 against 

1 A. Lavy, op. cit., p. 79. 

» Ibid., p. 80. 

s Only the most important measures of M. Millerand are mentioned; 
they do not by any means exhaust his legislative activities during this 
period. 



339] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR l0 g 

205 votes (5 blank) ; the project on the regulation of 
strikes and on arbitration was rejected by a unanimous 
vote minus five ; the Councils of Labor proposition was re- 
jected by a majority of 279 against 175 (18 blank). 

The discussion on the labor laws brought out the fact 
that the idea of " direct action " had undergone further 
modifications as a result of the policy of the government 
M. Waldeck-Rousseau was denounced by the speakers as 
" a clever defender of the interests of the bourgeoisie " 
who wished merely to stop the offensive movement of the 
workingmen 'V The legislative measures of the " pseudo- 
socialist minister ", 2 Millerand, were interpreted as schemes 
for restraining the revolutionary action of the syndicats. 8 
The workingmen were warned that, if they accepted the 
laws, they would " reinforce a power which they wanted to 
destroy ". 4 They were reminded that the main function of 
the syndicat is to organize the workmen for their final 
emancipation which presupposes the " abolition of the 
wage-system " and that all " so-called labor laws " would 
only retard the hour of final liberation. 

The revolutionary elements of the Congress did not 
deny, however, the possibility or the desirability of reforms. 
They insisted only upon particular methods of obtaining re- 
forms and upon a particular kind of reforms. They rejected 
all peaceful discussion with employers because the interests 
of employers and of workingmen were held to be distinct 
and antagonistic. They did not want an " economic par- 
liamentarism " 5 which would necessarily take the sting out 
of the workingmen's weapons and deprive the syndicats of 
their force. They wanted such reforms only as should 

1 XII Congrcs National Corporatif (VI de la C. G. T.), Lyons, 1901, 
p. no. 

2 Ibid., p. 114. 3 Ibid., p. 210. 
4 Ibid., p. 112. 5 Ibid., p. 218. 



HO THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [340 

" undermine the foundations " 1 of existing society and 
which should advance the movement for " integral emanci- 
pation " by strengthening the forces and the organization 
of the workingmen. 

Such reforms could be obtained only " independently 
of all parliamentarism ", 2 by the workingmen organized 
in their syndicats displaying all their initiative, manifest- 
ing all their energies, relying only upon themselves and 
not upon intermediaries. Only in this way would the syn- 
dicats wrest " piece by piece from capitalistic society re- 
forms the application of which would finally give the ex- 
ploited class the force which is indispensable in order to 
bring about the social revolution ". 3 

These ideas are very characteristic, showing as they do, 
the further application which the principle of " direct ac- 
tion " was given by the revolutionary elements in the syn- 
dicats. The syndicats are not only to carry on their 
struggle " directly " against employers by strikes, boycotts 
and sabotage, but also against the State, and not only 
against the State appearing as the " enemy of labor ", but 
also against the State wishing to become the protector and 
benefactor of the workingmen. This hostility to the State 
and to its reform-legislation marks a further accentuation 
of the ideas of revolutionary syndicalism. 

The Congress of Lyons took, also, a decided stand on the 
relations of the syndicats to political action. Under " politi- 
cal action " of course the action of the Socialist parties was 
meant. After the foundation of the General Confederation 
of Labor certain important changes had taken place in the 
socialist movement of France which could not but have 
their effect upon the syndicats. 

1 XI Congrcs National Corporatif, p. no. 

2 Ibid., p. 114. 3 Ibid., p. no. 



341 ] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR IXI 

In 1893 tne socialist parties had their first big success in 
the general elections. They obtained about 600,000 votes 1 
and elected over 50 deputies. The socialist deputies in the 
Chamber constituted a Parliamentary Group — Union 
Socialiste — which acted in common. This strengthened 
the tendency toward union which had already manifested 
itself, during the elections, when the Socialists had entered 
into unions among themselves. 

The unity in action was further made possible by a unity 
in views which was becoming more and more manifest. 
After 1892, when the Guesdists obtained a large num- 
ber of votes in the municipal elections and gained a num- 
ber of municipalities, their ideas on some of the most 
important points of their program began to change. In 
1894, at their Congress of Nantes, the Guesdists elabor- 
ated a detailed program of reforms designed to win the 
votes of the agricultural population. This program made 
no mention of the collective appropriation of the soil; on 
the contrary, it stated that, " in the agricultural domain, 
the means of production, which is the soil, is in many places 
still in the possession of the producers themselves as indi- 
vidual property " and that " if this state of conditions, 
characterized by peasant proprietorship, must inevitably 
disappear, socialism must not precipitate its disappear- 
ance." 2 With similar promises of reform the Guesdists 
addressed other classes of the population: artisans, petty 
merchants and the lower strata of the middle classes. 

Formerly ardent revolutionists, they now began to em- 
phasize the legal aspect of their activity and the emanci- 
pating influence of universal suffrage. Jules Guesde him- 
self in his speeches in the Chamber of Deputies on various 

1 A. Hamon, Le Socialisme et le Congres de Londres (Paris, 1897), 
p. 11. 
s L. Blum, Congres Ouvriers et Socialistes, p. 146. 



112 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [342 

occasions expressed his belief that universal suffrage was 
the instrument with which all questions might be peacefully- 
solved, 1 and that nothing but legal weapons would throw 
the Republic into the hands of the socialist army. G. De- 
ville, then one of the principle theorists of the party, af- 
firmed in 1896 that the only actual task of the party was to 
increase the number of socialist electors and representa- 
tives. 2 With the affirmation of the emancipating signifi- 
cance of universal suffrage the importance of parliament- 
ary action was more and more emphasized. 

Thus the " revolutionary " socialists were approaching 
the reformist elements composed of Broussists and of In- 
dependents. In 1896 this rapprochement was manifested 
at the banquet of Saint Mande arranged on the occasion 
of the success obtained by the socialists during the muni- 
cipal elections of that year. All socialist parties took part 
in it and Millerand delivered a speech in which he outlined 
the common points of the socialist program. This program 
emphasized the peaceful and evolutionary character of so- 
cialism : " We address ourselves only to universal suffrage," 
said Millerand, . . ." In order to begin the socialization 
of the means of production, it is necessary and sufficient 
for the Socialist party to pursue with the help of universal 
suffrage the conquest of the political powers." 3 Guesde, 
present at the banquet, approved and " applauded " the defi- 
nition of Socialism given by Millerand. 

The Dreyfus affair brought the socialists for some time 
into still closer contact. A " Committee of Harmony " 
(Comite oV Entente) was formed in which all the socialist 

t-Chambre des Deputes, Debats Parlementaires; July 11, 1895; No- 
vember 22, 1895. 

2 Deville. Principes Soeialistes. 

8 A. Millerand, Le Socialisme Reformiste Frangais (Paris, 1903), 
PP- 31-32. 






343] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR II3 

organizations were represented. The demand for unity 
was expressed in the socialist periodical press, and J. Jaures 
outlined a plan according to which the old separate and 
rival factions were to disappear in one unified party. 1 The 
belief in the possibility of such a unified party was general. 

The entrance of Millerand into the Ministry of Waldeck- 
Rousseau was a sudden shock which again disrupted the 
elements tending toward union. The Guesdists, Blanquists 
and a few other groups denounced the act of Millerand as 
a violation of the principles of class and class-struggle — 
the fundamental principles of Socialism. The Independents, 
Broussists and similar elements, on the contrary, insisted 
upon the necessity of taking part in the general life of the 
country and of assuming responsibilities when they are in- 
evitable. At two general Congresses of all socialist or- 
ganizations held in Paris (December, 1899, an d September, 
1900) this question was discussed. The Congresses ended 
with a quarrel among the various socialist organizations 
which led to complete rupture at the following Congress in 
Lyons in May, 1901. The Guesdists, Blanquists and sev- 
eral regional federations formed the Parti Socialiste de 
France; the Independents, Broussists, and Allemanists 
formed the Parti Socialiste Francais, which supported Mil- 
lerand and the cabinet of Waldeck-Rousseau. Within each 
new grouping, however, the old organizations remained in- 
tact. 

The " case Millerand " raised such violent polemics, such 
bitter mutual accusations among the Socialists that many 
members of the party felt disgusted. Even the French so- 
cialist movement, so rich in inner divisions and dissensions, 
had never before experienced such a critical condition. 

In view of this situation the organized workingmen 

1 Le Mouvetnent Socialiste, Jan., 1899. 



II4 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [344 

were anxious now more than ever to keep politics out of 
the syndicats. The resolution adopted unanimously by the 
Congress of Lyons insisted upon the fact that the introduc- 
tion of politics into the syndicats would cause division in 
the syndicalist ranks, and therefore invited the syndicats 
and the federations to remain independent of all political 
parties, " leaving to individuals the undeniable right to de- 
vote themselves to that kind of struggle which they prefer 
in the political field ". The syndicat as an organization, 
however, should remain neutral; otherwise it would be 
" false to its true role which consists in grouping all the 
exploited without distinction of race, nationality, philo- 
sophical or religious opinions, and political views." * 

The reaction of socialist workingmen, however, to the 
situation created by the " case Millerand " was of a more 
complicated character. While the entrance of a socialist 
minister into the government aroused hopes and expecta- 
tions in the minds of many, to others it seemed the begin- 
ning of the end of socialism. Habitually regarding social- 
ism as a class-movement, imbued with the ideas of class 
and class-struggle, they were shocked and grieved at the 
" collaboration of classes " which Millerand practised in 
the government and the Socialists in Parliament. 

To these socialist workingmen the danger seemed the 
greater because it presented itself as the crowning act of a 
policy that had been pursued for some time by all the so- 
cialists. As we have seen, even the revolutionary Gues- 
dists had become more and more moderate. They had co- 
operated in Parliament with the republican parties and had 
concluded alliances during elections with " bourgeois " 
parties. At the general Congress of socialists in Paris in 
1899, M. Briand in a clever and somewhat biting speech 

1 XII Congres Corporatif (Lyons, 1001), p. 151. 



345] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR 115 

pointed out to the revolutionary socialists that their policy 
had made the " case Millerand " possible. " It seems," said 
Briand, " that great astonishment has been aroused in our 
comrades of the Parti Ouvrier (Guesdists) by the entrance 
of our comrade Millerand into a bourgeois government. 
But, citizens of the Parti Ouvrier, what has taken place is 
the very consequence of the policy which by successive 
concessions you have forced upon the entire socialist 
party." x And Briand pointed out these " successive con- 
cessions " which deprived the Guesdists of their revolu- 
tionary character. To quote M. Briand again : 

Yes, you became interested in these [electoral] struggles which 
gave immediate results, and little by little our militant com- 
rades also became interested in them, took a liking for them 
to such a degree that they soon came to believe that in order 
to triumph definitely over the capitalist society nothing was 
necessary but to storm the ballot-boxes. Thus within recent 
years the country could gain the impression that the socialist 
party was no longer a revolutionary party. 2 

This impression many socialist workingmen had, and the 
" case Millerand " strengthened it in them. But preserva- 
tion of the revolutionary character of socialism was for 
them a necessity, equivalent to maintaining their belief in 
the coming of socialism at all. These workingmen of 
all socialist parties, Allemanists, Blanquists, and even 
Guesdists, therefore, now threw themselves with greater 
energy into the syndicalist movement which seemed to 
them the only refuge for the revolutionary spirit. There 
they met the Communist-Anarchists who had been tak- 
ing an active part in the syndicalist movement for some 
time. The Communist-Anarchists before 1895 na( * gen- 

1 Congrcs General des Organisations Socialistes (Paris, 1899), p. 152. 
*/Wrf, p. 155- 



Il6 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [346 

erally shown little sympathy for the syndicats where the 
workingmen, they said, were either engaged in politics or 
trying to obtain paltry reforms. But tired of carrying on a 
merely verbal propaganda and spurred on by Pelloutier, 
they began to change their attitude after 1895, and after 
1899 became influential in many syndicalist organizations. 
Their criticism of electoral action, their denunciation of 
political intriguing, now under the conditions created 
by the " case Millerand ", fell on prepared ground and 
yielded fruit. A decided anti-political tendency gained 
strength in the syndicats. 

This tendency was further strengthened by the economic 
events of the period. During these years, particularly after 
the Exhibition of Paris, a series of big strikes took place 
in various parts of France, among the miners in the north, 
the dockers in the ports of the south, in the Creusot works, 
etc. These strikes were partly the result of the large ex- 
pectations aroused in the workingmen by the entrance of a 
socialist minister into the government. But the govern- 
ment sent troops against some of the strikers and in two 
or three cases blood was shed. The agitation aroused by 
the bloodshed was great and intensified the defiance toward 
Millerand and toward the political parties in general. 
On the other hand, some of the strikes became more or 
less general in character and were won by the energetic 
action of the strikers. This strengthened the conviction 
in the efficacy of economic action and in the possibility of 
the general strike. 

Under the combined influence of all these conditions, the 
socialist and anarchist workingmen, during this period, 
began to ascribe to the syndicats a decided preponderance 
in all respects, and they actively engaged in making their 
revolutionary ideas predominant in the syndical organiza- 
tions. The resolutions and discussions at the Congress of 



347] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR ny 

Lyons revealed this state of mind and the progress attained. 
The revolutionary elements of the syndicats had by this 
time become conscious of themselves, and in opposition to 
the program of the political socialists, they advanced the 
idea of the General Confederation of Labor as a distinctly 
unifying conception which in the future was to play a great 
social role. " The General Confederation of Labor unit- 
ing all the workingmen's syndical forces/' said the Secre- 
tary, Guerard, in his report to the Congress of Lyons, " is 
destined to become the revolutionary instrument capable of 
transforming society." * In greeting the delegates at the 
opening of the Congress, Bourchet addressed them as " the 
representatives of the great party of Labor " (grand parti 
du travail) 2 . The same term is used by other delegates, 3 
and in the summing-up of the work of the Congress, the 
emphasis is laid upon the demarcation between the syndi- 
calists and the politicians which the Congress had clearly 
shown. 

Thus, with the Congress of Lyons the General Confed- 
eration of Labor may be said to have entered definitely 
upon the revolutionary path. The main ideas which form 
the contents of revolutionary syndicalism were clearly for- 
mulated and consciously accepted. The main functionaries 
elected after the Congress were revolutionists, viz., the 
secretary Griffuelhes and the assistant secretary and editor 
of the Voir du Peuple Pouget. 

The Congress of Montpellier held next year (1902) 
showed constant accentuation of the revolutionary tenden- 
cies. The Congress of Montpellier was almost entirely oc- 
cupied with the elaboration of a new constitution which 
would unite the General Confederation and the Federation 

1 XI Congres Corporatif, (Lyons, 190O, P- 29. 

2 Ibid., p. 14. 3 Ibid., p. 69. 



1 18 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [348 

of Bourses. Statutes acceptable to both organizations were 
adopted to go into force on January 1, 1903. 

At the Congress of Montpellier the report of the Secre- 
tary Griffuelhes claimed that during the year the Confed- 
eration had made progress. But this progress was very 
slight. The real growth of the Confederation began after 
its fusion with the Federation of Bourses. Since then also 
dates the more active participation of the Confederation 
in the political and social life of the country. But before 
taking up the history of the General Confederation since 
1902, it seems advisable to sum up the main ideas of revo- 
lutionary syndicalism in a more systematic way. This 
seems necessary for a better understanding of the activities 
of the General Confederation which since that date has been 
led by the revolutionary syndicalists. 



CHAPTER V 
The Doctrine of Revolutionary Syndicalism 

By the time the General Confederation of Labor had 
adopted its present constitution the main ideas of revolu- 
tionary syndicalism were already clearly formulated. Since 
then, however, a considerable amount of literature has ap- 
peared on the subject, either clarifying, or further develop- 
ing various points of the doctrine. This literature consists 
mainly of numerous articles in the periodical press and of 
pamphlets and is accordingly of an unsystematic character. 
The attempt is made in this chapter to sum up in a sys- 
tematic way the leading ideas of revolutionary syndicalism 
common to all who call themselves revolutionary syndi- 
calists. Consideration of individual ideas and of contribu- 
tions of particular writers will be left to a following chap- 
ter. 

The fundamental idea of revolutionary syndicalism is 
the idea of class-struggle. Society is divided into two 
classes, the class of employers who possess the instruments 
of production and the class of workingmen who own noth- 
ing but their labor-power and who live by selling it. 

Between the two classes an incessant struggle is going 
on. This struggle is a fact, not a theory in need of proof. 
It is a fact manifested every day in the relations between 
employers and wage-earners, a fact inherent in the eco- 
nomic organization of existing society. 

The class-struggle is not a fact to be deplored; on the 
contrary, it should be hailed as the creative force in so- 
ciety, as the force which is working for the emancipation 

340] 119 



120 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [350 

of the working-class. It is the class-struggle which is con- 
solidating the workingmen into a compact unity opposed 
to the exploitation and domination of employers. It is the 
class-struggle which is evolving new ideas of right (droit) 
in opposition to the existing law. It is the class-struggle 
which is developing the self -consciousness, the will-power 
and the moral character of the workingmen and is creating 
forms of organization proper to them. In a word, it is the 
class-struggle which is forging the material and moral 
means of emancipation for the workingmen and putting 
these weapons into their hands. 

The task of the syndicalists is to organize the more or 
less vague class-feeling of the workingmen and to raise it 
to the clear consciousness of class-interests and of class- 
ideals. This aim can be attained only by organizing the 
workingmen into syndicats. The syndicat is an association 
of workingmen of the same or of similar trades. It is a 
grouping held together by bonds of common interest, 
and in this is its strength. Of all human groupings it is 
the most fundamental and the most permanent, because 
men in society are interested above everything else in the 
satisfaction of their economic needs. 

The strength, permanence, and class-character of eco- 
nomic groups are made prominent by comparison with 
forms of grouping based on other principles. A political 
party, a group of idealists, a community professing a com- 
mon creed, these are associations which cannot but be weak 
and transient in view of their heterogeneous composition 
and of the accidental character of their bond of union. 
Political bodies, for instance, are made up of men of var- 
ous interests grouped only by community of ideas. Even 
the Socialist party consists of manufacturers, financiers, 
doctors, lawyers as well as of workingmen, and cannot, 
therefore, make prominent the class-division of society. 



351] REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM I2 i 

On the contrary, it tends to merge all classes into one con- 
glomeration, and is, therefore, unstable and incapable of 
persistent collective action. Only in groupings of real and 
fundamental interests such as the syndicats, are men of the 
same conditions brought together for purposes inextricably 
bound up with life. 

The syndicat groups men of one and the same trade in 
their capacity of workingmen only, regardless of any other 
qualifications. The workingmen entering a syndicat may 
be Catholics or Protestants, Republicans, Socialists, or 
Monarchists, they may be of any color, race or nationality; 
in their capacity of workingmen they are all equally wel- 
come and legitimate members of the syndicat. A working- 
man enrolling in a syndicat is not entering a party, not 
subscribing to a platform, nor accepting a creed. He is 
simply entering into a relation which is forced upon him 
by his very position in society, and is grouping himself 
with his fellowmen in such a way as to derive more strength 
for himself in the struggle for existence contributing at 
the same time to the strength of his fellowmen. 

These conditions make the syndicat peculiarly fit to serve 
the interests of the workingmen. The syndicat is a sphere 
of influence which by the volume of its suggestion and by 
the constancy and intensity of its action shapes the feel- 
ings and ideas of the workingmen after a certain pat- 
tern. In the syndicat the workingmen forget the things 
which divide them and are intent upon that which unites 
them. In the syndicat the workingmen meet to consider 
common intei ests, to discuss their identical situation, to 
plan together for defense and aggression, and in all ways 
are made to feel their group-solidarity and their antago- 
nism to the class of employers. 

In view of this the syndicats should prefer industrial 
unionism to craft unionism. The separation of working- 



122 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [352 

men into trades is apt to develop in them a corporate spirit 
which is not in harmony with the class-idea. The industrial 
union, on the contrary, widens the mental horizon of the 
workingman and his range of solidarity with his fellow 
workingmen and thus serves better to strengthen his class- 
consciousness. 

The syndicat is the instrument with which the work- 
ingmen can enter into a " direct " struggle with employers. 
" Direct action " is what the syndicalists most insist upon, 
as the only means of educating the workingmen and of 
preparing them for the final act of emancipation. " Direct 
action " is action by the workingmen themselves, without 
the help of intermediaries; it is not necessarily violent 
action, though it may assume violent forms; it is 
the manifestation of the consciousness and of the will of 
the workingmen themselves, without the intervention of an 
external agent: it consists in pressure exerted directly 
by those interested for the sake of obtaining the ends in 
view. 

" Direct action " may assume various forms, but the 
principal ones in the struggle against employers are: the 
strike, the boycott, the label, and sabotage. 

The strike, in the view of the syndicalist, is the manifes- 
tation of the class-struggle par excellence. The strike 
brings the workingmen face to face with the employers in 
a clash of interests. A strike clears up, as if by a flash 
of lightning, the deep antagonism which exists between 
those who employ and those who work for employers. It 
further deepens the chasm between them, consolidating the 
employers on the one hand, and the workingmen on the 
other, over against one another. It is, thus, a revolutionary 
fact of great value. 

All strikes, partial, general in a locality, or general in 
some one trade, have this revolutionary influence, particu- 



353] REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM I2 $ 

larly when they are conducted in a certain way. If the 
workingmen rely only on their treasury, the strike degen- 
erates into a mere contest between two money bags — that 
of the employer and that of the syndicat — and loses much 
of its value. Still more are the syndicalists opposed to 
methods of conciliation and of arbitration. The idea of the 
revolutionary syndicalists is that a strike should be won 
by Sturm und Drang, by quick and energetic pressure on 
employers. The financial strength of workingmen when 
striking should not be considered. Money may be supplied 
by contributions of workingmen of other trades and locali- 
ties, in itself another means of developing the solidarity of 
the working-class. Sometimes a strike may be won by 
calling out sympathetic strikes in other trades. 

Strikes conducted in this manner yield practical results 
and serve also as means of educating the workingmen. 
They reveal to the workingmen their power, as producers, 
and their importance in the productive system of society. 
The label, on the other hand, is a means of bringing home 
to the workingmen their importance as consumers, and of 
making them wield this power for their own benefit. 

The boycott reveals the power of the workingmen, 
either as producers or as consumers. It may be wielded 
against an employer whose shop is avoided, or against a 
firm in its capacity as seller. It is an effective means of 
forcing employers to come to terms. 

Sabotage consists in obstructing in all possible ways 
the regular process of production, in order to obtain any 
demand. It may express itself in slow work, in bad work 
and even in the destruction of the machinery of production. 
An application of this method which has recently attracted 
much attention is the so-called greve perlce. This is 
practised on railway lines and consists in a more or less 
systematic obstruction of the regularity of the railway ser- 



124 THE LAB0R MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [354 

vice. The syndicalists, however, strongly condemn any 
act of sabotage which may result in the loss of life. 

Such are the " direct " methods of struggle against em- 
ployers. But the revolutionary syndicalists have another 
enemy, the State, and the struggle against the latter is an- 
other aspect of " direct action ". 

The State appears to the syndicalists as the political or- 
ganization of the capitalist class. Whether monarchist, 
constitutional, or republican, it is one in character, an or- 
ganization whose function it is to uphold and to protect the 
privileges of the property-owners against the demands of 
the working-class. The workingmen are, therefore, neces- 
sarily forced to hurl themselves against the State in their 
efforts toward emancipation, and they cannot succeed until 
they have broken the power of the State. 

The struggle against the State, like the struggle against 
the employers, must be carried on directly by the working- 
men themselves. This excludes the participation of the 
syndicats in politics, and in electoral campaigning. The 
parliamentary system is a system of representation opposed 
in principle to " direct action ". The parliament serves the 
interests of the bourgeoisie, for the management of which 
it is particularly suited. The workingmen, on the contrary, 
can derive no benefit from it. The parliamentary system 
breeds petty, self-seeking politicians, corrupts the better 
elements that enter into it and is a source of intrigues and 
of " wire-pulling." The so-called representatives of the 
workingmen do not and cannot avoid the contagious influ- 
ence of parliament. Their policy degenerates into bargain- 
ing, compromising and collaboration with the bourgeois 
political parties and weakens the class-struggle. 

The syndicats, therefore, if not hostile, must remain at 
least indifferent to parliamentary methods and independent 
of political parties. They must, however, untiringly pursue 



355] REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM j 2 $ 

their direct struggle against the State. The direct method of 
forcing the State to yield to the demands of the working- 
men consists in exerting external pressure on the public 
authorities. Agitation in the press, public meetings, mani- 
festations, demonstrations and the like, are the only ef- 
fective means of making the government reckon with the 
will of the working-class. 

By direct pressure on the government the workingmen 
may obtain reforms of immediate value to themselves. 
Only such reforms, gained and upheld by force, are real. 
All other reforms are but a dead letter and a means of de- 
ceiving the workingmen. 

The democratic State talks much about social reforms, 
labor legislation and the like. In fact, however, all labor 
laws that are of real importance have been passed only 
under the pressure of the workingmen. Those which owe 
their existence to democratic legislators alone are devised 
to weaken the revolutionary strength of the working-class. 
Among such laws are those on conciliation and arbitration. 
All democratic governments are anxious to have Boards 
of Conciliation and of Arbitration, in order to check strikes 
which are the main force of the working-class. Working- 
men must be opposed to these reforms, which tend to 
weaken the struggle of classes and which are intended to 
further the harmony and collaboration of classes. 

The ideology of class-harmony is one of the most dan- 
gerous snares which are set for the workingmen in a demo- 
cratic State. 1 This ideology blinds the workingmen to the 
real facts of inequality and of class-distinctions which are 
the very foundations of existing society. It allures them 
into hopes which cannot be fulfilled and leads them astray 
from the only path of emancipation which is the struggle 
of classes. 

1 The fundamental principle of democracy is that all citizens are 
equal before the law and that there are no classes in the state. 



126 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [356 

Another idea which is used by the democratic State for 
the same purpose is the idea of patriotism. " Our coun- 
try ", " our nation ", are mottoes inculcated into the mind 
of the workingman from his very childhood. But these 
words have no meaning for the workingman. The work- 
ingman's country is where he finds work. In search of 
work he leaves his native land and wanders from place to 
place. He has no fatherland (patrie) in any real meaning 
of the term. Ties of tradition, of a common intellectual 
and moral heritage do not exist for him. In his experience 
as workingman he finds that there is but one real tie, the 
tie of economic interest which binds him to all the working- 
men of the world, and separates him at the same time from 
all the capitalists of the world. The international solidarity 
of the workingmen and their anti-patriotism are, therefore, 
necessary consequences of the class struggle. 

The democratic State, like any other State, does not rely 
upon ideological methods alone in keeping down the work- 
ingmen. It has recourse to brute force as well. Its judi- 
ciary and administrative machinery is used for this pur- 
pose. But the force which is mainly used to crush the 
movements of the working-class is the army. The army is 
used in strikes against workingmen, it is used as a means 
of crushing the spirit of independence and of revolt in the 
workingmen, and as a means of keeping up the spirit 
of militarism. An anti-militaristic propaganda and agita- 
tion, therefore, is one of the most important forms of 
struggle against the State, as well as against capitalism. 

Anti-militarism consists in carrying on in the army a 
propaganda of syndicalist ideas. The soldiers are reminded 
that they are workingmen in uniforms, who will one day 
return to their homes and shops, and who should not, there- 
fore, forget the solidarity which binds them to their fellow 
workingmen in blouses. The soldiers are called upon not 



357] REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM I2 y 

to use their arms in strikes, and in case of a declaration of 
war to refuse to take up arms. The syndicalists threaten 
in case of war to declare a general strike. They are ardent 
apostles of international peace which is indispensable, in 
their opinion, to the success of their movement. 

By " direct action " against employers and the State the 
workingmen may wrest from the ruling classes reforms 
which may improve their condition more or less. The 
syndicalists recognize the importance of such reforms as 
conducive mainly to the fortification of the working-class 
and to its preparation for the final struggle. Reforms, 
however, cannot bring about the abolition of the wage- 
system and of private property. A collision is therefore 
inevitable in the future between the two antagonistic classes, 
and the struggles of to-day are making possible this combat 
of the morrow. Every successful strike, every effective 
boycott, every manifestation of the workingmen's will and 
power is one more blow directed against the existing order ; 
every gain in wages, every shortening of hours of work, 
every improvement in the general conditions of employ- 
ment is one more position of importance occupied on the 
march to the decisive battle, the general strike, which will 
be the final act of emancipation. 

The general strike — the supreme act of the class-war — 
will abolish the classes and will establish new forms of 
society. The general strike must not be regarded as a dens 
ex machina which will suddenly appear to solve all diffi- 
culties, but as the logical outcome of the syndicalist move- 
ment, as the act that is being gradually prepared by the 
events of every day. However remote it may appear, it 
is not a Utopia and its possibility cannot be refuted on the 
ground that general strikes have failed in the past and may 
continue to fail in the future. The failures of to-day are 
building the success of to-morrow. And in time the hour 
of the successful general strike will come. 



128 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [358 

What are the forms of the social organization which will 
take the place of those now in existence? The Congress 
of Lyons (1901) had expressed the wish to have this ques- 
tion on the program of the next Congress. In order that 
the answer to this question should reflect the ideas prevalent 
among the workingmen, the Confederal Committee sub- 
mitted the question to the syndicats for study. A question- 
naire was sent out containing the following questions : 

(1) How would your syndicat act in order to transform 
itself from a group for combat into a group for production? 

(2) How would you act in order to take possession of 
the machinery pertaining to your industry ? 

(3) How do you conceive the functions of the organized 
shops and factories in the future? 

(4) If your syndicat is a group within the system of 
highways, of transportation of products or of passengers, 
of distribution, etc., how do you conceive its functioning? 

(5) What will be your relations to your federation of 
trade or of industry after your reorganization? 

(6) On what principle would the distribution of products 
take place and how would the productive groups procure 
the raw material for themselves ? 

(7) What part would the Bourses dit Travail play in the 
transformed society and what would be their task with 
reference to the statistics and to the distribution of pro- 
ducts ? 

At the Congress of Montpellier, in 1902, a number 
of reports were presented answering the above questions. 
The reports were in the name of the syndicats and came 
from different parts of France. Only a limited number 
of them were printed as appendices to the general report 
of the Congress. Among them, it may be interesting to 
note, was the report of the syndicat of agricultural labor- 
ers. The rest were summed up in the official organ of the 
Confederation, La Voix du Peuple. 



359] REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM J2 g 

The reports differ in details. Some emphasize one point 
more than another and vice-versa. But the general char- 
acter of the reports is identical and shows a consensus of 
opinion on the main outlines of that " economic federal- 
ism " which is the ideal of the syndicalists. 

According to this ideal, the syndicat constitutes the cell 
of society. It groups the producers of one and the same 
trade who control their means of production. Property, 
however, is " social " or collective, and no one syndicat is 
the exclusive owner of any portion of the collective prop- 
erty. It merely uses it with the consent of the entire so- 
ciety. 

The syndicat is connected with the rest of society 
through its relations with the Federation of its trade, the 
Bourse du Travail, and the General Confederation. With 
the National Federation relations are mainly technical and 
special, and the role of the Federation is insignificant. 
With the General Confederation relations are indirect and 
mainly by mediation of the Bourse du Travail. Relations 
with the latter are of permanent importance, and all re- 
ports agree on making the Bourses du Travail the centers 
of economic activity. 

The Bourse du Travail — in the ideal system of the 
syndicalists — concentrates all local interests and serves 
as a connecting link between a locality and the rest of 
the world. In its capacity as local center it collects all 
statistical data necessary for the regular flow of economic 
life. It keeps itself informed on the necessities of the 
locality and on its resources, it provides for the proper dis- 
tribution of products; as intermediary between the locality 
and the rest of the country it facilitates the exchange of 
products between locality and locality and provides for the 
introduction of raw materials from outside. 

The essential part played by the Bourses du Travail is 



I30 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [360 

emphasized by all. The Bourse seems to combine in its or- 
ganization the character both of local and of industrial 
autonomy. It sets itself against the centralized political 
system of the present State and against the centralizing 
tendencies of capitalistic industry. 

To the General Confederation are left only services that 
have a national importance, railways for instance. How- 
ever, even in the management of the national public ser- 
vices the National Federation and the Bourses are to have 
the first word. The function of the General Confederation 
consists mainly in furnishing general information and in 
exerting a controlling influence. The General Confederation 
is also to serve as intermediary in international relations. 

In this social system the State as now constituted has no 
place. Of course, one may call the ideal system of the syn- 
dicalists a State. All depends on the definition given to 
the term. But when the syndicalists speak of the State, 
they mean an organization of society in which a dele- 
gated minority centralizes in its hands the power of legis- 
lation on all matters. This power may be broken up 
and divided among a number of governing bodies, as in 
the federal system of the United States, but it does not 
thereby change its character. The essential character- 
istic of the State is to impose its rule from without. 
The legislative assemblies of the present State decide upon 
questions that are entirely foreign to them, with which 
they have no real connection in life and which they, there- 
fore, do not understand. The rules they prescribe, the dis- 
cipline they impose, come as an external agency to inter- 
vene in the processes of social life. The State is, therefore, 
arbitrary and oppressive in its very nature. 

To this State-action the syndicalists oppose a discipline 
coming from within, a rule suggested by the processes of 
collective life itself, and imposed by those whose function 



361] REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM l $i 

it is to carry on those processes. It is, as it were, a special- 
ization of function carried over into the domain of public 
life and made dependent upon industrial specialization. 
No one should legislate on matters unless he has the neces- 
sary training. The syndicats, the delegates of the syndi- 
cats to the Bourses du Travail, and so on, only they can 
properly deal with their respective problems. The rules 
they would impose would follow from a knowledge of the 
conditions of their social functions and would be, so to 
speak, a " natural " discipline made inevitable by the con- 
ditions themselves. Besides, many of the functions of the 
existing State would be abolished as unnecessary in a so- 
ciety based on common ownership, on co-operative work, 
and on collective solidarity. The necessary functions of 
local administration would be carried on by the Bourses du 
Travail. 

In recent years, however, revolutionary syndicalists have 
not expatiated upon the forms of the future society. Con- 
vinced that the social transformation is inevitable, they 
have not thought it necessary to have any ready-made 
model upon the lines of which the social organization of 
the future should be carved. The revolutionary classes 
of the past had no idea of the new social system they were 
struggling for, and no ready-made plan is necessary for 
the working-class. Prepared by all the preliminary strug- 
gle, the workingmen will find in themselves, when the time 
comes, sufficient creative power to remake society. The 
lines of the future, however, are indicated in a general way 
by the development of the present, and the syndicalist 
movement is clearly paving the way for an " economic fed- 
eralism ". 

The workingmen are being prepared for their future 
role by the experiences of syndicalist life. The very strug- 
gle which the syndicats carry on train the workingmen in 



132 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [362 

solidarity, in voluntary discipline, in power and in deter- 
mination to resist oppression and in other moral qualities 
which group life requires. Moreover, the syndicats, par- 
ticularly the Bourses du Travail, are centers where educa- 
tional activities are carried on. Related to the facts of life 
and to the concrete problems of the day, this educational 
work, in the form of regular courses, lectures, readings, 
etc., is devised to develop the intellectual capacities of the 
workingmen. 

The struggles of the present and the combat of the 
future, imply the initiative, the example and the leader- 
ship of a conscious and energetic minority ardently 
devoted to the interests of its class. The experience of 
the labor movement has proven this beyond all doubt. The 
mass of workingmen, like every large mass, is inert. It 
needs an impelling force to set it into motion and to put to 
work its tremendous potential energy. Every strike, every 
labor demonstration, every movement of the working-class 
is generally started by an active and daring minority which 
voices the sentiments of the class to which it belongs. 

The conscious minority, however, can act only by carry- 
ing with it the mass, and by making the latter participate 
directly in the struggle. The action of the conscious minor- 
ity is, therefore, just the opposite of the action of parlia- 
mentary representatives. The latter are bent on doing 
everything themselves, on controling absolutely the affairs 
of the country; they are anxious, therefore, to keep the 
masses as quiet, as inactive and as submissive as possible. 
The conscious minority, on the contrary, is simply the ad- 
vance-guard of its class; it cannot succeed, unless backed 
by the solid forces of the masses; the awareness, the readi- 
ness and the energy of the latter are indispensable condi- 
tions of success and must be kept up by all means. 

The idea of the " conscious minority " is opposed to the 



363] REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM ^3 

democratic principle. Democracy is based upon majority- 
rule, and its method of determining the general will is 
universal suffrage. But experience has shown that the 
" general will " is a fiction and that majority-rule really 
becomes the domination of a minority — which can impose 
itself upon all and exploit the majority in its own inter- 
ests. This is inevitably so, because universal suffrage is a 
clumsy, mechanical device which brings together a num- 
ber of disconnected units and makes them act without 
proper undertsanding of the thing they are about. The 
effect of political majorities when they do make them- 
selves felt is to hinder advance and to suppress the pro- 
gressive, active and more developed minorities. 

The practice of the labor movement is necessarily the 
reverse of this. The syndicats do not arise out of universal 
suffrage and are not the representatives of the majority 
in the democratic sense of the term. The syndicats group 
but a minority of all workingmen and can hardly expect 
ever to embrace the totality or even the majority of the 
latter. 

The syndicat arises through a process of selection. The 
more sensitive, the intellectually more able, the more active 
workingmen come together and constitute themselves a 
syndicat. They begin to discuss the affairs of their trade. 
When determined to obtain its demands, the syndicat enters 
into a struggle, without at first finding out the " general 
will ". It assumes leadership and expects to be followed, 
because it is convinced that it expresses the feelings of all. 
The syndicat constitutes the leading conscious minority. 

The syndicat obtains better conditions not for its mem- 
bers alone, but for all the members of the trade and often 
for all the workingmen of a locality or of the country. 
This justifies its self -assumed leadership, because it is not 
struggling for selfish ends, but for the interests of all 



134 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [364 

Besides, the syndicat is not a medieval guild and is open 
to all. If the general mass of workingmen do not enter the 
syndicats, they themselves renounce the right of determin- 
ing conditions for the latter. Benefiting by the struggles of 
the minority, they cannot but submit to its initiative and 
leadership. 

The syndicat, therefore, is not to be compared with 
" cliques ", " rings ", " political machines ", and the like. 
The syndicat, it must be remembered, is a group of indi- 
viduals belonging to the same trade. By this very economic 
situation, the members of a syndicat are bound by ties of 
common interest with the rest of their fellow-working- 
men. A sense of solidarity and an altruistic feeling of de- 
votion to community interests must necessarily arise in the 
syndicat which is placed in the front ranks of the strug- 
gling workingmen. The leadership of the syndicalist min- 
ority, therefore, is necessarily disinterested and beneficent 
and receives the voluntary submission of the workingmen. 

Thus, grouping the active and conscious minority the 
syndicats lead the workingmen as a class in the struggle 
for final emancipation. Gradually undermining the foun- 
dations of exiting society, they are developing within the 
framework of the old the elements of a new society, and 
when this process shall have sufficiently advanced, the 
workingmen rising in the general strike will sweep away 
the undermined edifice and erect the new society born from 
their own midst. 



CHAPTER VI 
The Theorists of Revolutionary Syndicalism 

The writers who have contributed to the development 
of revolutionary syndicalism may be divided into two 
groups. One comprises men who have been or are still 
active in the syndicalist movement, for instance Pelloutier, 
Pouget, Griffuelhes, Delesalle, Niel, Yvetot and others, 
men who either belong to the working-class, or who have 
completely identified themselves with the workingmen. 
The other consists of a number of " intellectuals " who 
stand outside of the syndicalist movement. 

The first group is mainly characterized by the fact that its 
members have played the leading part in building up the 
syndicalist movement. Pelloutier was secretary of the Fed- 
eration of Bourses from 1894 to 1901 ; Griffuelhes was sec- 
retary of the General Confederation of Labor from 1901 to 
1908; Pouget was assistant secretary of the Confederation 
and editor of the Voix dn Pen pie from 1900 to 1908; 
Yvetot has been one of the secretaries of the Confederation 
since 1909; Niel was secretary of the General Confedera- 
tion for a short time in 1909, and the others now occupy 
or have occupied prominent places in the syndicalist organi- 
zations. 

The close connection of the members of this group with 
the syndicalist movement and with the General Confedera- 
tion of Labor has had its influence upon their writings. 
Their ideas have been stimulated by close observation of 
the facts of syndicalist life, and the flow of their thought 
365] i35 



136 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [366 

is directed largely by the struggles of the day. There is 
a stronger emphasis in their writings, therefore, upon 
methods, upon " direct action ", and upon relations to 
other existing groups. There is less speculation and pure 
theorizing. In other respects the men of this group differ. 
They have come from different political groupings : Pouget 
and Yvetot, for instance, from the Communist-Anarchists; 
Griffuelhes from the Allemanists. They have different 
views on the relation of revolutionary syndicalism to other 
social theories, differences which will be brought out 
further on. 

The second group of writers, outside the syndicalist 
movement, has for its center the monthly Le Mouvement 
Socialiste, started in 1899 by M. Hubert Lagardelle, a 
member of the Socialist Party. Le Mouvement Socialiste 
was at first a Socialist monthly review, but accentuated its 
sympathy for the syndicalists as time went on, and became 
an expressly revolutionary syndicalist organ in 1904. The 
Mouvement Socialiste counted among its constant con- 
tributors down to last year M. Georges Sorel and Edouard 
Berth. These three writers, Sorel, Lagardelle, and Berth 
have tried to systematize the ideas of revolutionary syndi- 
calism and to put them on a philosophical and sociological 
basis. The most prolific of them and the one who has 
been proclaimed " the most profound thinker of the new 
school " is M. Georges Sorel. 

M. Georges Sorel has written on various subjects. 
Among the works from his pen are volumes on Socrates, 
on The Historical System of Renan, on The Ruin of the 
Ancient World, a number of articles on ethics and on var- 
ious other topics. The works that bear on revolutionary 
syndicalism which alone can be here considered, are: 
UAvenir Socialiste des Syndicats, La Decomposition du 
Marxisme, Introduction a l'£conomie Moderne, Les lllur 



367] REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM ^7 

sions du Progres, Reflexions sur la Violence, and a number 
of articles in various periodicals. 

The works of M. Sorel on revolutionary syndicalism 
stretch over a period of ten to twelve years: The Socialist 
Future of the Syndicats was written in 1897; the second 
edition of his Reflections on Violence appeared in 19 10 
Within this period of time the thought of M. Sorel has not 
only steadily developed in scope but has also changed in 
many essential points. It would require a separate study 
to point out the changes and their significance. This is 
out of the question in this essay. The salient points only 
of M. Sorel's theories will be treated here, therefore, with- 
out consideration of their place in the intellectual history 
of their author. 

M. Sorel has attached his theories to the ideas of Marx. 
Revolutionary syndicalism is to M. Sorel but the revival 
and further development of the fundamental ideas of Marx. 
The " new school " considers itself, therefore, " neo-Marx- 
ist ", true to " the spirit " of Marx * though rejecting the 
current interpretations of Marx and completing the lac- 
unae which it finds in Marx. This work of revision it con- 
siders indispensable because, on the one hand, Marx was not 
always " well inspired ", 2 and often harked back to the 
past instead of penetrating into the future; and because, on 
the other hand, Marx did not know all the facts that have 
now become known; Marx knew well the development of 
the bourgeoisie, but could not know the development of the 
labor movement which has become such a tremendous 
factor in social life. 3 

The " new school " does not consider itself by any means 
bound to admire " the illusions, the faults, the errors of 

1 G. Sorel, L'Avenir Socialiste des Syndicats (Paris, 1901), p. 3. 
2 G. Sorel, Reflexions sur la Violence (Paris, 1910), p. 249. 
■ Ibid., p. 245. 



138 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [368 

him who has done so much to elaborate the revolution- 
ary ideas." 1 What it retains of Marx is his essential and 
fruitful idea of social evolution, namely, that the develop- 
ment of each social system furnishes the material condi- 
tions for effective and durable changes in the social rela- 
tions within which a new system begins its development. 2 
Accordingly, Socialists must drop all Utopian ideas: they 
must understand that Socialism is to be developed gradu- 
ally in the bosom of capitalism itself and is to be liberated 
from within capitalistic surroundings only when the time is 
ripe. 

The ripening of socialism within capitalism does not 
mean merely technical development. This is indispen- 
sable, of course : socialism can be only an economic system 
based on highly developed and continually progressing 
productive forces; but this is one aspect of the case only. 
The other, a no less if not more important aspect, is the 
development of new moral forces within the old system; 
that is, the political, juridical and moral development of 
the working-class, 3 of that class which alone can establish 
a socialist society. 

This was also the idea of Marx : " Marx also saw that 
the workingmen must acquire the political and juridical 
capacity before they can triumph." 4 The revolution which 
the working-class is pursuing is not a simple change in the 
personnel or in the form of the government; it is a com- 
plete overthrow of the " traditional State " which is to be 
replaced by the workingmen' s organizations. Such a com- 
plete transformation presupposes " high moral culture " in 
the workingmen and a capacity for directing the economic 
functions of society. The social revolution will thus come 

1 G. Sorel, Reflexions sur la Violence (Paris, 1910), P- 249. 
8 G. Sorel, L'Avenir Socialiste des Syndicats, pp. 3-4. 
3 Ibid., p. 39. * Ibid., p. 4- 



369] REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM 139 

only when the workingmen are " ready " for it, that is, 
when they feel that they can assume the direction of 
society. The " moral " education of the working-class, 
therefore, is the essential thing; Socialism will not have to 
" organize labor ", because capitalism will have accom- 
plished this work before. But in order that the working- 
class should be able to behave like " free men " in the 
" workshop created by capitalism ",*■ they must have de- 
veloped the necessary capacities. Socialism, therefore, re- 
duces itself " to the revolutionary apprenticeship " 2 of 
the workingmen ; " to teaching the workingmen to will, to 
instructing them by action, and to revealing to them their 
proper capacities; such is the whole secret of the socialist 
education of the people." 3 

The workingmen can find the moral training necessary 
for the triumph of socialism only in the syndicats and in 
the experience of syndical life. The syndicats develop the 
administrative and organizing capacities of the working- 
men. In the syndicats the workingmen learn to do their 
business themselves and to reject the dictatorship of " intel- 
lectuals " who have conquered the field of politics which 
they have made to serve their ambitions. 

The greatest organizing and educating force created by 
the syndicalist movement is the idea of the general strike. 
The general strike means a complete and " absolute " revo- 
lution. It is the idea of a decisive battle between the bour- 
geoisie and the working-class assuring the triumph of the 
latter. This idea is a " social myth " and hence its tre- 
mendous historic force. 

" Social myths " always arise during great social move- 
ments. The men who participate in great social move- 

1 G. Sorel, Reflexions sur la Violence, pp. 284-5. 

8 Ibid., p. 42. 

1 G. Sorel, Preface to Pelloutier's Histoire des Bourses du Travail. 



I 4 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [370 

ments, represent to themselves their actions in the near 
future in the form of images of battles assuring the tri- 
umph of their cause. These images are " myths ". The 
images of the early Christians on the coming of Christ and 
on the ruin of the pagan world are an illustration of a 
" social myth ". The period of the Reformation saw the 
rise of " social myths ", because the conditions were such 
as to make it necessary for the " men of heart " who were 
inspired by " the will of deliverance " to create " images " 
which satisfying their " sentiments of struggle " kept up 
their zeal and their devotion. 

The " social myth " presupposes a social group which 
harbors an intense desire of deliverance, which feels all the 
difficulties in its way and which finds deep satisfaction in 
picturing to itself its future struggles and future triumph. 
Such images must not and cannot be analyzed like a thing ; 
they must be taken en bloc, and it is particularly necessary 
to avoid comparing the real historic facts with the repre- 
sentations which were in circulation before the facts took 
place. 

" Myths " are indispensable for a revolutionary move- 
ment; they concentrate the force of the rising class and 
intensify it to the point of action. No myth can possibly 
be free from Utopian conceptions. But the Utopian ele- 
ments are not essential. The essentials are the hope back 
of the myth, the ideal strengthened by the myth, and the 
impatience of deliverance embodied in the myth. 

The general strike is the " social myth " of the working- 
class longing for emancipation. It is the expression of the 
convictions of the working-class " in the language of move- 
ment ", the supreme concentration of the desires, the hopes, 
and the ideals of the working-class. Its importance for the 
future of Socialism, therefore, is paramount. The idea of 
the general strike keeps alive and fortifies in the working- 



371 ] REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM I4I 

men their class-consciousness and revolutionary feelings. 
Every strike on account of it assumes the character of a 
skirmish before the great decisive battle which is to come. 
Owing to the general strike idea, " socialism remains ever 
young, the attempts made to realize social peace seem child- 
ish, the desertion of comrades who run over into the ranks 
of the bourgeoisie, far from discouraging the masses, ex- 
cites them still more to revolt; in a word, the rupture (be- 
tween bourgeoisie and working-class) is never in danger 
of disappearing." l 

This rupture is an indispensable condition of Socialism. 
Socialism cannot be the continuation of democracy ; it must 
be, if it can be at all, a totally " new culture " built upon 
ideas and institutions totally different from the ideas and 
from the institutions of democracy. Socialism must have 
its own economic, juridical, political and moral institutions 
evolved by the working-class independently from those of 
the bourgeoisie, and not in imitation of the latter. 

Sorel is bitter in his criticism of democracy; it is, in his 
view, the regime par excellence in which men are governed 
" by the magical power of high-sounding words rather than 
by ideas; by formulas rather than by reasons; by dogmas 
the origin of which nobody cares to find out, rather than 
by doctrines based on observation. ,, 2 It is the kingdom 
of the professionals of politics, over whom the people can 
have no control. Sorel thinks that even the spread of 
knowledge does not render the masses more capable of 
choosing and of supervising their so-called representatives 
and that the further society advances in the path of democ- 
racy, the less effective does control by the people become. 3 

1 G. Sorel, Reflexions sur la Violence, p. 179. 

2 G. Sorel, Illusions du pr ogres (Paris, 1911), p. 10. 

8 Ibid., p. 59. 



I4 2 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [372 

The whole system of democracy, in the opinion of M. 
Sorel, is based on the " fiction of the general will " and is 
maintained by a mechanism (campaigning, elections, etc.) 
which can result only in demoralization. It delivers the 
country into the hands of "charlatans," of office-seekers 
and of idle talkers who may assume the air of great men, 
but who are never fit for their task. 

The working-class must, therefore, break entirely with 
democracy and evolve from within itself its own ideas and 
original institutions. This complete rupture between the 
ideas of the past and those of the future contradicts the 
conception of progress now in vogue. But the conception 
of progress is rather a deception than a conception. As 
held to-day, it is full of illusions, of errors, and of miscon- 
ceptions. The idea of progress is characteristic of democ- 
racy and is cherished by the bourgeois classes because it 
permits them to enjoy their privileges in peace. Lulled 
by the optimistic illusion that everything is for the best in 
this best of all worlds, the privileged classes can peacefully 
and hopefully pass by the misery and the disorders of ex- 
isting society. This conception of progress, like all other 
ideas of democracy, was evolved by the rising middle 
classes of the eighteenth century, mainly by the function- 
aries of royalty who furnished the theoretical guides of the 
Revolution. But, in truth, the only real progress is the 
development of industrial technique * — the constant inven- 
tion of machinery and the increase of productive forces. 
The latter create the material conditions out of which a 
new culture arises, completely breaking with the culture of 
the past. 

One of the factors promoting the development of pro- 
ductive forces is " proletarian violence ". This violence 

1 G. Sorel, Illusions du Pr ogres, p. 276. 



27?,] REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM I43 

is not to be thought of after the model of the " Reign of 
Terror " which was the creation of the bourgeoisie. " Pro- 
letarian violence " does not mean that there should be a 
" great development of brutality " or that " blood should 
be shed in torrents" (verse a Hots). 1 It means that the 
workingmen in their struggle must manifest their force so 
as to intimidate the employers ; it means that " the social 
conflicts must assume the character of pure struggles simi- 
lar to those of armies in a campaign ". 2 Such violence will 
show the capitalist class that all their efforts to establish 
social peace are useless; the capitalists will then turn to 
their economic interests exclusively; the type of a forceful, 
energetic " captain of industry " will be the result, and all 
the possibilities of capitalism will be developed. 

On the other hand, violence stimulates ever anew the 
class-feelings of the workingmen and their sentiments of 
the sublime mission which history has imposed upon them. 
It is necessary that the revolutionary syndicalists should 
feel that they are fulfiling the great and sublime mission 
of renovating the world; this is their only compensation 
for all their struggles and sufferings. The feelings of sub- 
limity and enthusiasm have disappeared from the bourgeois- 
world, and their absence has contributed to the decadence 
of the bourgeoisie. The working-class is again introducing 
these feelings by incorporating them in the idea of the 
general strike, and is, therefore, making possible a moral 
rejuvenation of the world. 

All these ideas may seem tinged with pessimism. But 
"nothing very great (tres haut) has been accomplished 
in this world" without pessimism. 3 Pessimism is a "meta- 
physics of morals " rather than a theory of the world ; it 

1 G. Sorel, Reflexions sur la Violence, pp. 256-7. 
1 Ibid., p. 150. *Ibid., p. 8. 



I 4 4 THE LAB0R MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [374 

is a conception of " a march towards deliverance " and pre- 
supposes an experimental knowledge of the obstacles in the 
way of our imaginings or in other words " a sentiment of 
social determinism " and a feeling of our human weak- 
ness. 1 The pessimist " regards the social conditions as 
forming a system enchained by an iron law, the necessity 
of which must be submitted to as it is given en bloc, and 
which can disappear only after a catastrophe involving the 
whole ". 2 This catastrophic character the general strike 
has and must have, if it is to retain its profound significance. 

The catastrophic character of the general strike enhances 
its moral value. The workingmen are stimulated by it to 
prepare themselves for the final combat by a moral effort 
over themselves. But only in such unique moments of 
life when " we make an effort to create a new man within 
ourselves " " do we take possession of ourselves " and be- 
come free in the Bergsonian sense of the term. The gen- 
eral strike, therefore, raises socialism to the role of the 
greatest moral factor of our time. 

Thus, M. Sorel having started out with Marx winds up 
with Bergson. The attempt to connect his views with the 
philosophy of Bergson has been made by M. Sorel in all his 
later works. But all along M. Sorel claims to be " true to 
the spirit of Marx " and tries to prove this by various quo- 
tations from the works of Marx. It is doubtful, however, 
whether there is an affinity between the " spirit " of Marx 
and that of Professor Bergson. It appears rather that M. 
Sorel has tacitly assumed this affinity because he interprets 
the " spirit " of Marx in a peculiar and arbitrary way. 

Without any pretense of doing full justice to the sub- 
ject, three essential points may be indicated which perhaps 
sufficiently prove that " neo-Marxism " has drifted so far 

1 G. Sorel, Reflexions sur la Violence, p. 12. 

2 Ibid., p. 13. 



375] REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM I45 

away from Marx as to lose touch with his " spirit " 
These three points bear upon the very kernel of Marxism: 
its conception of determinism, its intellectualism, and its 
emphasis on the technical factors of social evolution. 

The Marxian conception of social determinism is well 
known. The social process was thought of by Marx as 
rigidly " necessary ", as an organic, almost as a mechanical 
process. The impression of social necessity one gets in 
reading Marx is so strong as to convey the feeling of being 
carried on by an irresistible process to a definite social end. 

In M. Sorel's works, on the contrary, social determinism 
is a word merely, the concept back of it is not assimilated. 
M. Sorel speaks of the general strike and of Socialism as 
of possibilities or probabilities, not of necessities. In read- 
ing him, one feels that M. Sorel himself never felt the ir- 
resistible character of the logical category of necessity. 

The difference in the second point follows from the dif- 
ference in the first. Marx never doubted the possibility of 
revealing the secret of the social process. Trained in the 
" panlogistic school ", Marx always tacitly assumed that 
socialism could be scientific, that the procedure of science 
could prove the necessity of social evolution going in one 
direction and not in any other. It was the glory of having 
given this proof which he claimed for himself and which 
has been claimed for him by his disciples. 

M. Sorel is expressly not " true to the spirit " of Marx 
in this point. " Science has no way of forseeing 'V says 
he. His works are full of diatribes against the pretention 
of science to explain everything. He attributes a large role 
to the unclear, to the subconscious and to the mystical in 
all social phenomena. A sentence like the following may 
serve to illustrate this point. Says M. Sorel: 

1 G. Sorel, UAvenir Socialiste des Syndicats, p. 54. 



I 4 6 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [376 

Socialism is necessarily a very obscure thing, because it treats of 
production — that is, of what is most mysterious in human activ- 
ity — and because it proposes to realize a radical transformation 
in this region which it is impossible to describe with the clear- 
ness which is found in the superficial regions of the world. 
No effort of thought, no progress of knowledge, no reasonable 
induction will ever be able to dispel the mystery which envelops 
Socialism. 1 
< 

This, according to Sorel, is just what " Marxism has recog- 
nized " : M. Sorel, certainly, " knows his Marx ". 

In the third point, M. Sorel " the revolutionary revision- 
ist ", comes very close to M. Bernstein, " the evolutionary 
revisionist". The coming of Socialism is made independent 
of those technical and economic processes which Marx so 
much emphasized. The conceptions of the concentration 
of capital, of proletarization, etc., are given up. On the 
contrary, Socialism is to be prepared by the " revolution- 
ary apprenticeship " of the working-class, an apprentice- 
ship to be made in action and under the influence of a 
" social myth " created by imagination spurred on by the 
subconscious will. There certainly are pronounced volun- 
taristic elements in Marx, but this whole conception of M. 
Sorel seems to attribute to Marx a " spirit " by no means 
in harmony with his make-up. 

Though claiming to be a disciple of Marx, M. Sorel 
seems to be rather more in harmony with Proudhon whose 
works he often quotes and whose views, particularly on 
morals, he accepts. But besides Proudhon many other 
writers have had a considerable influence on M. Sorel. 
Besides Bergson, already mentioned, Renan and Nietzsche, 
to quote but two, have had their share of influence in many 
of the ideas expressed by M. Sorel. M. Sorel has an es- 

1 G. Sorel, Reflexions sur la Violence, pp. 201-2. 



2jj] REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM I47 

sentially mobile mind quick to catch an idea and to give 
it a somewhat new and original turn. He lacks the ability 
of systematizing his views and his reader must have con- 
siderable patience with him. The systematic way in which 
his views have been given in this chapter is rather mislead- 
ing; M. Sorel himself proceeds in a quite different way; 
he deals with an idea for a while but is led away into di- 
gression after digression, to pick up the thread of his 
previous argument tens of pages later. 

Lack of system makes it easier for contradictions to live 
together without detection. It also predisposes a writer 
to assimilate and to transform any ideas he may meet. 
With Sorel this is evidently so, though his main claim is 
" profundity ". The pages of his work bristle with the 
word approfondir which is so often repeated that it makes 
the poor reader dizzy. The disappointment is sharp, be- 
cause M. Sorel soon loses the thread of his thought before 
having had time to fathom his subject. His works, how- 
ever, savor of freshness of thought and of originality. 

Quite a different writer is M. Lagardelle. His exposi- 
tion is regular, systematic, fluent, and clear. While Sorel 
is mainly interested in the philosophical aspect of his prob- 
lems and has been called, probably sarcastically, by M. 
Jaures " the metaphysician of revolutionary syndicalism ", 
M. Lagardelle considers the economic and political aspects 
of the new doctrine. His works need not be dwelt upon 
because his ideas do not differ essentially from those of M. 
Sorel. Two points, however, may be singled out; M. La- 
gardelle, though criticizing democracy, is careful to point 
out that Socialism has been made possible by democracy 
and that no return to ancient political forms is desired; 
secondly, he allows a place for the political [socialist] party 
in the general social system; its role is to attend to those 



I 4 8 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [378 

problems which are not entirely included within the domain 
of industrial activities. 1 

Now, what are the relations of the two groups of 
writers described in this chapter and what part has each 
played in the history of the movement? These questions 
must be carefully considered if a correct understanding 
of revolutionary syndicalism is desired. 

The view which prevails outside of France is that M. 
Sorel and his disciples have " created " the theory of revo- 
lutionary socialism in opposition to the parliamentary so- 
cialists and that they have been able to impress their ideas 
upon a larger or smaller portion of the organized French 
workingmen. This view was first presented by Professor 
W. Sombart in his well-known work on Socialism and the 
Social Movement, and has made its way into other writings 
on revolutionary syndicalism. M. Sorel is often spoken of 
as the " leader " of the revolutionary syndicalists, and the 
whole movement is regarded as a form of Marxian revi- 
sionism. 

This view, however, is a " myth " and should be dis- 
carded. French writers who have studied the social 
movement of their country and who are competent judges 
have tried to dispel the error that has gotten abroad. 8 
The theorists of the Mouvemcnt Socialiste themselves 
have repeatedly declined the " honor " which error has 
conferred upon them. M. Lagardelle has reiterated time 
and again that revolutionary syndicalism was born of the 
experience of the labor movement and worked out by the 
workingmen themselves. M. Sorel has said that he learned 
more from the syndicalist workingmen than they could 
learn from him. And in an article reviewing the book of 

1 H. Lagardelle, Le Socialisme Ouvrier (Paris, 1911). 

2 See articles of Lagardelle, G. Weil and Cornelissen in the Archiv 
fur Sozialwissenchaft und Sozialpolitik, 1907-1910. 



379] REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM 1A q 

Professor Sombart, M. Berth has insisted that Professor 
Sombart was in error. " If we had any part," wrote he, "it 
was the simple part of interpreters, of translators, of 
glossers; we have served as spokesmen, that's all; but it is 
necessary to avoid reducing to a few propositions of a 
school, a movement which is so essentially working-class 
and the leading ideas of which, such as direct action and 
the general strike, are so specifically of a working-class 
character." * 

This must not be taken as over-modesty on the part 
of " intellectuals " who are careful not to pose as leaders 
or as inspirers. The facts are there to prove the statements 
of M. Lagardelle and of M. Sorel. The idea of the general 
strike was elaborated by workingmen-members of the var- 
ious committees on the general strike. The idea of " direct 
action ", as has been shown, found its defenders in the first 
Congresses of the General Confederation of Labor. The 
theory of the social role of the syndicat was formulated by 
Pelloutier and by other members of the " Federation of 
Bourses " before M. Sorel wrote his little book on The So- 
cialist Future of the Syndicats. 

Even the statement of M. Berth must be somewhat modi- 
fied. The theorists of the Mouvement Socialiste have 
never by any means been the authorized " spokesmen " of 
the revolutionary syndicalists of the General Confedera- 
tion. They were no more than a group of writers who, 
watching the syndicalist movement from the outside, were 
stimulated by it to their reflections and ideas. They thought 
they found in the syndicalist movement " a truly original 
force capable of refreshing the socialist conception ", and 
they formulated their ideas on the subject. They never 
took any part in the movement, and could not feel them- 
selves its representatives. 

1 Le Mouvement Socialiste (May, 1908), p. 390 



150 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [380 

What then was their influence? In general, the same as 
that of other socialist writers. They were and are read by 
the French workingmen just as Kropotkin, Jaures, Proud- 
hon and other contemporary or former socialist and anar- 
chist writers, and as many non-socialist writers are. Na- 
turally, some workingmen came more under their influence, 
than under that of others; and such workingmen may be 
disposed to look upon them as their theoretical guides and 
leaders. 

But even the latter interpretation is by no means appli- 
cable to all the theories of M. Sorel, for the main ideas of 
Sorel seem fundamentally incapable of inspiring a move- 
ment of large masses. The theory of the " social myth " 
may be original and attractive, but if accepted by the work- 
ingmen could not inspire them to action. If " images of 
battles " are important for the " rising classes " as an im- 
pelling force, they can be so only so long as they are 
naively and fully believed in. The worm of reflection 
must not touch them. The " men longing for deliverance " 
must believe that the future will be just as they picture it, 
otherwise their enthusiasm for these pictures would find 
no nourishment. Should they come to realize the " Uto- 
pian " and " mythical " character of their constructions 
they would abandon them. 

The pessimistic basis of M. Sorel's Weltanschauung may 
appeal to " literary men ", to students of philosophy and 
to individuals longing for a moral theory. It can not be 
assimilated by a mass " moving toward emancipation " 
When one reads the original documents of the syndicalist 
movement, he is struck, on the contrary, by the powerful 
torrent of optimism by which the movement is carried 
along. Only a strong belief in a " speedy emancipation " 
created the enthusiasm for the idea of the general strike. 
There may be a subconscious pessimism back of this opti- 



381] REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM I5I 

mism, but its appearance in the field of clear consciousness 
would have been destructive for the movement. 

It is, therefore, quite natural that the writers represent- 
ing the General Confederation of Labor who address the 
workingmen directly do not reproduce these theories of 
M. Sorel. As has been indicated already, their writings bear 
a different stamp. And if among these writers some, as for 
instance M. Griffuelhes, seem to have come more under the 
influence of the group Le Mouvement Socialiste, the rest 
occupy an independent position even from the theoretical 
point of view. 

How little M. Sorel could have been the " leader " of 
the revolutionary syndicalist movement may be illustrated 
by the following comparison. At the Congress of Lyons 
in 1 90 1 the secretary of the General Confederation of 
Labor, M. Guerard, wrote, as we have seen, that the Con- 
federation is destined to transform society. In the same 
year, M. Sorel, in his preface to Pelloutier's Histoire des 
Bourses du Travail, wrote : " The Confederation of Labor 
appears to me to be destined to become an officious Coun- 
cil of Labor, and an academy of proletarian ideas, which 
will present its wishes to the government, as the large agri- 
cultural societies do." The history of the General Confed- 
eration of Labor since 1902, to be considered in the fol- 
lowing chapter, will show that M. Sorel missed the point 
too far to be able to claim the title of " leader " whose 
function, presumably, is to point out the way and not to 
acknowledge it, after it has once been taken. 

It is necessary to bear all this in mind in order to grasp 
the real character of revolutionary syndicalism. M. Sorel 
has recently renounced his revolutionary syndicalist ideas. 
In December, 19 10, he wrote to the Italian revolutionary 
syndicalists who invited him to their Congress at Boulogne : 

It seems to the author [of the Reflections on Violence] that 



152 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [3S2 

syndicalism has not realized what was expected from it. 
Many hope that the future will correct the evils of the present 
hour; but the author feels himself too old to live in distant 
hopes; and he has decided to employ the remaining years of 
his life in the deepening (approfondir) of other questions 
which keenly interest the cultivated youth of France. 1 

Previous to that, M. Sorel and M. Berth had both prom- 
ised collaboration in a so-called neo-monarchist monthly, 
La Cite Frangaise, which, however, did not see the light. 
This probably seemed to them natural in view of their op- 
position to democracy. But under the political conditions 
of France such an act could not but shock the working- 
men who may criticise democracy but who are bitterly op- 
posed to everything connected with the ancien regime. 
This act of M. Sorel and M. Berth weakened the group of 
Le Mouvement Socialiste which, however, is still published 
by M. Lagardelle though with less force and eclat than 
before. The act of M. Sorel, however, could have no per- 
ceptible significance for the revolutionary syndicalist move- 
ment. The latter is led by other leaders and is determined 
in its march by other influences. 

The revolutionary syndicalist ideas embodied in the 
movement represented by the General Confederation of 
Labor were evolved, as has been shown, in the syndicalist 
organizations of France. The Anarchists entering the syn- 
dicats largely contributed to the revolutionary turn which 
the syndicats have taken. Their influence, hailed by some, 
deplored by others, is recognized by all. The Anarchists 
themselves often speak as if they "created" the entire move- 
ment, though this is an exaggeration. The role of the Alle- 
manists has been considerable, as was shown in the preced- 
ing chapters. And the more definite formulation of revolu- 

1 Le Mouvement Socialiste (March, 191 1), pp. 184-5. 



383] REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM 1^ 

tionary syndicalist ideas in the period of " Millerandism " 
was the work of revolutionary socialist workingmen of all 
brands — Allemanists, Anarchists, Blanquists and others. 

This clears up the question of the relation of revolution- 
ary syndicalism to other social theories. The theorists of 
the Mouvement Socialiste have proclaimed revolutionary 
syndicalism as a new social theory. They have been very 
persistent in trying to delimit their theoretical dominion 
from parliamentary socialism on the one hand, and from 
Anarchism on the other. From the latter particularly they 
wish to be separated, feeling as they do how dangerously 
close they come to it. Many workingmen have accepted 
this view, proud to proclaim that they have evolved a theory 
of their own — the theory of the working-class. 

Others, however, have taken the correct point of view. 
They see that the main ideas of revolutionary syndicalism 
cannot be said to be new. They may all be found in the 
old " International Association of Workingmen ", and es- 
pecially in the writings of the Bakounist or federalist wing 
of that Association. If not the terms, the ideas on direct 
action, on the general strike, on the social role of the syn- 
dicat, and on the future " economic federalism " may all 
be found there more or less clearly stated. 1 

Revolutionary syndicalism appears, then, from this point 
of view not as a new theory, but as a return to the old 
theories of the "International" in which the combined influ- 
ence of Proudhon, Marx and Bakounin manifested itself. 
The formulation of revolutionary syndicalism, however, is 
not to any great degree a conscious return to old ideas, 
though this conscious factor had its part; Pelloutier, for 
instance, was expressly guided by the conceptions of Proud- 
hon and Bakounin. References to the " International " are 

1 J. Guillaume, L' Internationale, vols, i-iii ; also Report of 7th Con- 
gress of " International " in Brussels in 1874. 



I 5 4 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [384 

also frequent in the discussions of the Congresses of the 
General Confederation. The more important factors, how- 
ever, were the conditions of the French syndical movement 
itself. The workingmen of different socialist groups meet- 
ing on the common ground of the syndicat had to atten- 
uate their differences and to emphasize their common points. 
Thus, by a process of elimination and of mutual influence 
a common stock of ideas was elaborated which absorbing 
the quintessence of all socialist theories became what is 
known as revolutionary syndicalism. Its similarity to the 
ideas of the " International " is partly due to the fact that 
in the " International " similar conditions existed. 

Mainly worked out in the practice of the syndicalist 
movement, the ideas of revolutionary syndicalism are also 
mainly determined in their further evolution by this prac- 
tice. The ideas, therefore, must be judged in connection 
with the conditions in which they developed. These con- 
ditions will be further described in the following chapters. 



CHAPTER VII 
The General Confederation of Labor Since 1902 

Before taking up the history of the Confederation since 
1902, a general outline of the constitution adopted at Mont- 
pellier must be given. These statutes have since been main- 
tained with but few insignificant changes. 

According to these statutes, the General Confederation 
of Labor consists of National Federations of industries 
and trades, 1 of National Syndicats, of isolated single syn- 
dicats (in that case only if there is no national or regional 
federation of the trade, or if the federation does not adhere 
to the Confederation), and of Bourses du Travail, consid- 
ered as local, departmental or regional central unions. 

Every syndicat adhering to the Confederation must fulfil 
the condition of so-called " double adherence " ; that is, it 
must belong to its national (or regional) federation of in- 
dustry or trade, and to the Bourse du Travail of its locality. 
Besides, every federation must have at least one subscrip- 
tion to the Voix du Peuple, which is the official organ 
of the Confederation. These conditions, however, were, 
and still are disregarded by a considerable number of syn- 
dicats. 2 

The General Confederation is represented by the Con- 
federal Committee which is formed by delegates of the ad- 
hering organizations. Each organization is represented by 

1 In 1906 the statutes were so modified as to admit no new trade 
federations. 

2 E. Pouget, Le Confederation GenSrale du Travail (Paris, 1908), 
p. 16. 

385] 155 



156 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [386 

one delegate in the Confederal Committee. This point 
should be noticed as it is the cause of struggle within the 
Confederation. It means that a large Federation has only 
one delegate and one vote in the Confederal Committee, 
just as another smaller Federation, or as a single Bourse 
du Travail. The number of delegates in the Confederal 
Committee, however, is not always equal to the number of 
adhering organizations, because one delegate may represent 
as many as three organizations. The delegates must be 
workingmen who have been members of their syndicat for 
at least a year. 

The General Confederation has five central organs; two 
sections and three commissions. The first section is called : 
" The Section of Federations of trades and of industries 
and of isolated syndicats;" the second is " The Section of 
the Federation of Bourses du Travail." The three com- 
missions are (1) the Commission of the journal; (2) the 
Commission of strikes and of the general strike, and (3) 
the Commission of Control. 

The two sections are autonomous in their internal af- 
fairs. The first section is formed by the delegates of the 
National Federations of trades and industries. They take 
the name of Comite des Federations d'industries et de 
metiers. This section appoints its own secretary, assistant 
secretary, treasurer, assistant treasurer, and archivist, who 
form the bureau of the section. This section collects 
monthly from every adhering organization 40 centimes 1 
for every hundred members, or for any fraction of a hun- 
dred ; isolated syndicats pay five centimes monthly for each 
member. 

The Section of Federations of industries and trades is 
convened by its secretary and meets whenever necessary. 
Its functions are to promote the organization of new fed- 

1 Increased in 1909 to 60 centimes. 



2'gy] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR i$y 

erations and to maintain relations between the adhering 
federations. It takes "all measures necessary for the main- 
tenance of syndical action in the field of economic strug- 
gle." It also tries to induce isolated syndicats to join their 
Bourses du Travail. 

The " Section of the Federation of Bourses du Travail " 
is formed by the delegates of the local, departmental and 
regional central unions. The delegates take the title of 
Comite des Bourses du Travail. The section appoints its 
own secretary, assistant secretary, treasurer, assistant treas- 
urer, and archivist, and these five members form the bureau 
of the second section. It collects from the Bourses du Tra- 
vail 35 centimes monthly for each adhering syndicat. 1 

The second section promotes the creation of new 
Bourses du Travail and coordinates the activities of the ad- 
hering Bourses. Its functions embrace " everything that 
bears upon syndical administration and upon the moral 
education of the workingmen " ; its task is to collect sta- 
tistics of production, of consumption, of unemployment.; 
to organize gratuitous employment bureaus, to watch the 
progress of labor legislation, etc. It also tries to induce 
single syndicats to join their national federations. This 
section also meets whenever necessary at the invitation of 
its secretary. 

The Commission of the Journal is composed of twelve 
members, six from each section. It appoints its own sec- 
retary. The journal must be edited only by workingmen- 
members of the Confederation. 

The Commission of strikes and of the general strike con- 
sists also of twelve members, six from each section, and 
appoints its own secretary. The functions of this commis- 
sion are: to study the strike movement in all countries, to 
collect subscriptions in favor of workingmen on strike, 

1 Changed in 1909 to five centimes for each member per year. 



158 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [388 

to send speakers and organizers to workingmen on strike; 
it also tries to make propaganda for the general strike 
and to promote " the penetration of this idea into the 
minds of organized workingmen ". For this purpose 
the commission creates wherever possible sub-committees 
of the general strike. This commission has its own 
resources which consist of 50 per cent of all money col- 
lected by the sub-committees, and of 50 per cent of the 
assessments collected by both sections of the Confederation. 

The Commission of Control is also formed of twelve 
members, six from each section ; it verifies the financial re- 
ports of both sections and of the other two commissions. 
It appoints its own secretary. 

The Confederal Committee is formed by the committees 
of both sections. It meets every three months, except in 
extraordinary cases. It executes the decisions of the Con- 
gresses, intervenes in all issues concerning the working- 
class and decides upon all questions of a general character. 

The Confederal Bureau consists of thirteen members, 
of the ten members of the bureaus of both sections and of 
the three secretaries of the three commissions. The Con- 
federal Bureau summons the Confederal Committee and 
executes the decisions of the latter. The secretary of the 
" Section of Federations " is the general secretary of the 
Confederation. The Confederal Bureau is renewed after 
every Congress, that is every two years, but functionaries 
whose terms have expired may be re-elected. 

Article 37 of the statutes adopted read : " The General 
Confederation of Labor, based on the principles of feder- 
alism and of liberty, assures and respects the complete 
autonomy of the organizations which conform to the pres- 
ent statutes." The Bourses du Travail and the Federations 
of industries and of trades were, therefore, to pursue inde- 
pendently the activities that concerned them alone. The 



389] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR ^9 

Bourses du Travail after 1902 continued in the main the 
activities described in the third chapter, accentuating, how- 
ever, their anti-militaristic propaganda. The Federations 
of industries and of trades concentrated their attention 
upon their particular trade and industrial interests. The 
General Confederation intervened or took the initiative 
only in questions that interested all or a considerable part 
of all workingmen. 

The new statutes went into force on January 1, 1903. 
The elections secured the predominance of the revolution- 
ary syndicalists in the Confederal Committee; Griffuelhes 
was elected secretary of the Confederation; Pouget, as- 
sistant; Yvetot, secretary of the Section of Bourses. 

In October of the same year the Confederal Committee 
was summoned to an extraordinary meeting to consider the 
question of the suppression of the employment bureaus. 
This question had agitated a considerable part of the work- 
ing-class for many years. The workingmen protested time 
and again against the methods and procedure of these 
bureaus. The protests of the workingmen were found to 
be well founded by all who investigated the matter. 1 The 
methods of the employment bureaus were condemned in 
Parliament where the question was several times brought 
up for consideration. 

No measures, however, were taken to remedy the situa- 
tion. The Chamber considered a bill to suppress the em- 
ployment bureaus with indemnity in 190 1-2, but the Senate 
rejected it in February, 1902. The question was then 
dropped again indefinitely. 

The workingmen of the food-producing industries (ali- 
mentation) were particularly interested in the suppression 
of the employment bureaus. In October, 1903, exasperated 

1 Senator Paul Strauss in La Grande Revue (Feb., 1004), pp. 320 
el seq. 



160 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [390 

by the fact that twenty-five years of lobbying and of peti- 
tioning had produced no results, they decided to take the 
matter into their own hands. October 29th, a " veritable 
riot " took place in the Bourse du Travail of Paris, the 
police used their arms, and many were wounded on both 
sides. 1 

The Confederal Committee decided to lend its help to 
the workingmen in the struggle. It appointed a special 
committee to direct the movement. The plan adopted was 
to carry on a wide agitation for some time and then to 
arrange protest-meetings on the same day in all industrial 
centers of France. December 5, 1903, hundreds of meet- 
ings were held all over France, at which the same demand 
was made that the employment offices be abolished. The 
meetings were arranged with the help of the Bourses du 
Travail which appear in all such cases as the centers of agi- 
tation. 

November 5, 1903, the Chamber, by 495 votes against 
14, voted a law suppressing the Employment Bureaus 
within a period of five years, with an indemnity of six 
million francs. In February, 1904, the law passed the Sen- 
ate with some modifications. 

The agitation for the suppression of the employment 
bureaus appeared to all as a manifestation of the new 
theories on " Direct Action ". " The socialist syndicats 
have wrested the vote of the Chamber by the pressure of 
rebellion {Coup d'cmeutcs) " wrote the Journal des Econo- 
mistes. 2 The revolutionary syndicalists themselves con- 
sidered the agitation as an illustration of their methods, 
and the success obtained as a proof of the efficiency of the 
latter. The report to the Congress of Bourges (1904) read: 

1 Journal des Debats (Nov. 6, 1903), P- 865. 

3 Journal des Economistes (November, 1903), p. 315. 



391] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR t6i 

Under the pressure of the workingmen the Government, till 
then refractory to the reform, capitulated. . . . To-day it is 
an accomplished fact; wherever syndicalist action was exer- 
cised with perseverance and energy, the employment bureaus 
have gone. This fact is characteristic. The General Con- 
federation has the merit, thanks to the immense effort of the 
interested themselves, of having obtained a reform in a rela- 
tively short time, if it is compared with the slowness with 
which everything concerning the workingmen is done. 1 

The policy of the General Confederation, however, had 
opponents within the Confederation itself. A struggle for 
supremacy between the two tendencies was inevitable, and 
it took place at the very next Congress of the Confedera- 
tion at Bourges (1904). 

The report presented to the Congress of Bourges showed 
that the Confederation had made considerable progress 
since 1902. It counted now 53 Federations of industries 
and trades, and National syndicats (against 30 in 1902), 
15 isolated syndicats, and no Bourses da Travail, a total 
of 1,792 syndicats (against 1,043 m I 9° 2 )> with 150,000 
members. The Section of Federations of industries had 
received in dues for the two years, 1 1 ,076 francs ; its total 
budget amounted to 17,882 francs; the Section of Bourses 
du Travail had collected in dues 9,016 francs and had a 
total budget of 12,213 francs. The Voix du Peuple was 
now self-supporting, and had increased the number of its 
subscriptions. The Congress of Bourges, for the first time, 
was organized on the financial resources of the syndicats 
without municipal or governmental subsidies. 

It was known before that the Congress of Bourges would 
discuss the question of methods, and both sides, the revo- 
lutionary syndicalists and those who were called " reform- 
ists ", made all efforts possible to obtain a majority at the 

1 XIV Congres National Corporatif (Bourges, 1904), p. 8. 



l6 2 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [392 

Congress. There were 1,178 mandates from as many syn- 
dicats. This was the system of representation adopted by 
the Statutes of the Confederation in 1902. At its Con- 
gress the Confederation resolves itself into an association 
of syndicats; the Federations and Bourses disappear and 
their constituent elements, the syndicats, take their place. 
Each syndicat — no matter how large or how small — has 
one vote; and one delegate may represent as many as ten 
syndicats. At the Congress of Bourges the 1,178 man- 
dates were distributed among 400 delegates, of whom 350 
came from the Provinces and 50 from Paris. 

The attack on the Confederal Committee was led by 
M. Keufer, the delegate and secretary of the Typographical 
Union (La Federation du Livre). He accused the Con- 
federal Committee of violating the statutes, of being par- 
tial and biased and of trying in every way to harm the 
Federation du Livre, because the latter pursued " reform- 
ist " methods. " Yes," said M. Keufer, " we prefer the 
reformist method, because we believe that direct and vio- 
lent action, commended by the anarchists, will cost thou- 
sands of workingmen their lives, without assuring durable 
results/' x He insisted that it was necessary to try concilia- 
tory methods before declaring strikes and to solicit the 
help of representatives in the legislative bodies. He showed 
that, on the one hand, even the revolutionary syndicalists 
were compelled by circumstances to use such methods,, 
while the Federation du Livre, on the other hand, did not 
shrink from strikes and from direct action, when that was 
inevitable. M. Keufer was supported by M. Lauche, the 
delegate of the machinists, and by M. Guerard, the delegate 
of the railway workers. 

The accusations of the "reformists" were repudiated by 
a number of revolutionary syndicalists who reaffirmed in 

1 XIV Congres Corporatif (Bourges, 1904). PP- 95-6. 



393] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR ^3 

their speeches adherence to the ideas, described in the pre- 
ceding chapters, on the State, on direct action, etc. They 
were the victors, and the report of the Confederal Com- 
mittee was approved by 812 votes against 361 and 11 blank. 

The main struggle, however, centered on the question 
of proportional representation. This question had been 
brought up at previous Congresses by the delegates of some 
larger syndicats. At one time even some of the revolu- 
tionary syndicalists had advocated proportional representa- 
tion as a means of finding out the real strength of the var- 
ious tendencies in the Confederation. But after the Con- 
federation became decidedly revolutionary, the revolution- 
ary syndicalists became decidedly opposed to proportional 
representation which they now regarded as a move on the 
part of the " reformist " element to obtain control of the 
Confederation. 1 

Proportional representation was defended by the dele- 
gates of the Typographical Union, of the Machinists and 
of the Railway Workers. They criticised the statutes 
adopted at Montpellier which gave every organization, re- 
gardless of its numbers, one vote only in the Confederal 
Committee. This system, they declared, vitiated the char- 
acter of the Confederation, and gave predominance to the 
minority. They claimed that the delegates in the Confed- 
eral Committee expressed the opinions shared by a small 
proportion only of the organized workingmen and that the 
Confederation was, therefore, a tool in the hands of a few 
" turbulent " individuals. They demanded that some sys- 
tem of proportional representation should be adopted which 
should give every organization a number of votes in the 
Confederal Committee proportional to the number of its 
members. 

The opponents of proportional representation argued 

l Mouvement Socialiste (Nov., 1904), p. 61. 



164 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [394 

that this system would stifle the small syndicats; that all 
syndicats are of equal value from the point of view of the 
economic struggle, because small syndicats may often 
achieve as much, and even more, than large ones; they 
pointed out that proportional representation would make 
necessary continual changes in the number of delegates in 
the Confederal Committee, because the effective force of 
the syndicats is in constant flux and that it would be impos- 
sible to find out the true figures. They claimed that pro- 
portional representation cannot be applied to economic life, 
because it is no fault of any one trade or industry if only a 
few thousand workers are employed in it, while other in- 
dustries require hundreds of thousands of workingmen. 
Even from the point of view of strength, they argued, a 
small syndicat may have more value than a large one be- 
cause it may embrace a larger proportion of workingmen 
employed in the trade. The opponents of proportional rep- 
resentation repudiated the assertion that only the small 
syndicats were with them and pointed out that some of the 
largest federations, as the Metallurgical Federation with 
11,500 members, the Federation of Marine with 12,000 
members and others, were against proportional representa- 
tion. 

The opponents of proportional representation carried 
the day and the proposition of the " reformist " delegates 
was rejected by a vote of 822 against 388 (one abstained). 

The Congress of Bourges thus sanctioned the revolution- 
ary character of the Confederation. The " reformists " 
frankly admitted that they had suffered a defeat and at- 
tributed it to the fact that two-thirds of the delegates were 
new men in the movement and under the influence of the 
anarchists. 1 The revolutionary syndicalists triumphed, and 
extolled the historical significance of the Congress of 

1 A. Keufer, Le Mouvement Socialiste (Nov., 1904), p. 93. 



395] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR 165 

Bourges which, in their opinion, was a " landmark " in the 
history of syndicalism. 

The Congress of Bourges adopted a resolution which 
was to concentrate the attention of the Confederation for 
the next two years on one question : an eight-hour working 
day. The Committee appointed by the Congress to con- 
sider the question reported that two ways of obtaining an 
eight-hour day had been indicated. One proposed to pre- 
pare a bill to be presented to the public authorities and to 
organize public meetings in order to show the government 
that public opinion demanded the passage of the law. This 
method was rejected by the Committee because ever since 
1889, workingmen had presented such petitions to the public 
authorities on every first of May, but without any results 
whatsoever. 

On the contrary, the other "direct" method which recom- 
mended the workingmen to " hold aloof " from the public 
authorities, and to exert all possible pressure " on their 
adversaries " was adopted by the Committee. The Com- 
mittee argued that the experience with the employment 
agencies had shown that this method gave better results. 
The report of the Committee read : 

If the recent campaign has resulted in the suppression of the 
employment bureaus, it is because the movement was becom- 
ing dangerous. 

Every day employment bureaus were abolished, anonymous 
violence was committed against the owners of the offices 
(placcurs), a considerable number of shops were damaged, 
numerous collisions took place between the police and the 
workingmen, Paris was in a state of siege, and it was in order 
to calm this agitation that Parliament voted a law making it 
permissive for the municipalities to abolish the employment 
bureaus. 1 

1 XIV Congres Corporatif (Bourges, 1904), pp. 205-6. 



166 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [396 

The Committee, therefore, recommended that the same 
method be used to obtain an eight-hour day, that big 
manifestations be organized all over France on the 1st of 
May, 1905, and that afterwards an active propaganda be 
carried on by a special commission appointed for that pur- 
pose by the Confederal Committee " in order that begin- 
ning with the 1st of May, 1906, no workingman should 
consent to work more than eight hours a day nor for a 
wage below the minimum established by the interested or- 
ganizations." 1 

The recommendation of the Committee was adopted 
by the Congress with an amendment of Pouget which still 
more emphasized the " direct " method to be used. 

To carry out the decisions of the Congress, the Confed- 
eral Committee appointed a special commission to direct 
the movement for an eight-hour day. The Commission 
sent out a questionnaire to all syndical organizations, 
asking all those who were in favor of the movement to lend 
their help. A number of manifestoes, posters and pamph- 
lets were published and spread abroad in tens of thou- 
sands of copies in which the meaning of the movement and 
its importance were explained. In the trade- journals, in 
the cars, in the streets, and wherever possible, brief mottoes 
were posted, such as : " Eight hours of work means more 
rest and more health," " To work more than eight hours 
means to lower your wages," etc. On the Bourse du Tra- 
vail of Paris a big placard was put up with the words: 
" From the first of May, 1906, we shall not work more 
than eight hours." Delegates were sent out on repeated 
tours into the province to carry on the propaganda and agi- 
tation. On the first of May, 1905, over 150 meetings were 
arranged in different parts of France at which the question 
of the eight-hour day was considered. 

1 XIV Congrds Corporatif (Bourges, 1904), P- 207. 



397] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR ify 

As May I, 1906, neared, the agitation in the country be- 
came more and more intense. A number of events helped 
to increase the agitation. In March, 1906, a catastrophe 
occurred in the mining districts of Northern France which 
resulted in the loss of workingmen's lives. A strike ac- 
companied by violence followed. In April, the letter car- 
riers of Paris struck, causing some disorganization in the 
service for a few days. 

Toward the end of April the number of strikes and mani- 
festations increased in Paris. The agitation was exploited 
by the enemies of the government and particularly by the 
monarchist papers. The Government of M. Clemenceau, 
on the other hand, tried to discredit the movement by 
spreading rumors that a plot against the Republic had been 
discovered in which monarchists and leaders of the Confed- 
eration were involved. The Voix du Peuple published a 
protest of the Confederal Committee against this accusa- 
tion. Nevertheless the government searched at the same 
time the houses of Monarchists, Bonapartists and of lead- 
ing members of the Confederation, and on the eve of the 
first of May, it arrested Griffuelhes, Pouget, Merrheim and 
other syndicalists together with a number of well-known 
monarchists. 

The first of May found Paris in a state of siege. Premier 
Clemenceau had collected numerous troops in the capital. 
Since the days of the Commune Paris had not seen so 
many. Among the bourgeoisie a real panic reigned. Many 
left Paris and crossed the Channel. Those who remained 
in Paris made provision for food for days to come. The 
papers spoke of the " coming revolution " which the Gen- 
eral Confederation of Labor was to let loose on society. 1 

The strike movement was very wide. According to offi- 
cial statistics, the agitation of the Confederation affected 

1 Journal des Debats (27 April, 1906), p. 769. 






168 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [398 

2,585 industrial establishments and involved 202.507 work- 
ingmen. The sweep of the movement may be grasped from 
the following table giving the statistics of strikes in France 
since 1892: 

Number of Number of Number of 

Year strikes establishments workingmen 

1892 261 500 50,000 

1893 634 4,286 170,123 

1894 39i i,73i 54,576 

1895 405 1,298 45,801 

1896 476 2,178 49,851 

1897 356 2,568 68,875 

1898 368 1,967 82,065 

1899 740 4,290 176,826 

1900 902 10,253 222,714 

1901 523 6,970 111,414 

1902 512 1,820 212,704 

1903 567 3,246 123,151 

1904 1,026 17,250 271,097 

1905 830 5,302 177,666 

1906 1,309 19,637 438,466 

1907 1,275 8,365 I97,96i x 

The movement assumed various forms in different 
trades. The printers, for instance, pursued their concilia- 
tory methods and obtained a nine-hour day in about 150 
towns. In some trades the strikes developed a more or less 
acute character and continued for several months after 
the first of May. 

Some of the " reformists " declared that the movement 
was a complete failure. 2 According to official statistics,* 
the results of the strike movement were as follows : 

1 Statistique des Graves, 1893- 1908. 

■ XV Congrds National Corporatif (Amiens, 1906), p. 103. 

• Statistique des Greves, 1906, pp. 774 et seq. 



399] 



THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR 



169 



Demand 



Success 



.52 2 

32 



% hour day 1 2 

9 hour day I 36 

xo hour day | 40 



*3S 
582 



45 
2723 
7409 



Compromise 



Failure 


Strikes 

] Establish, 
ments 


! Strikers 



,970 25,520 

i 

994 30,75<> 



I 7,556 109,786 

755 * 7.° 2 3 
3 68 | 7,251 



The revolutionary syndicalists did not claim material 
success, but they argued that this was not expected. The 
main purpose of the movement, they asserted, was, " by an 
immense effort, to spread among the large mass of work- 
ingmen the ideas which animate the militant groups and the 
syndical organizations. The problem to be solved, at first, 
was, thus, by means of a vigorous propaganda to reach the 
workingmen who had remained indifferent to the syndical- 
ist movement." * And this task, in the opinion of the 
revolutionary syndicalists, had been accomplished. The 
agitation had aroused the workingmen in all parts of 
France. 

In September, 1906, the Congress of the Confederation 
met at Amiens. The report of the secretary showed con- 
tinued progress of the Confederation since 1904. The Sec- 
tion of Federations of industries now counted 61 federal 
organizations with 2,399 syndicats and 203,273 members. 
The dues collected by this section for the two years 
amounted to 17,650 francs; and its total budget to 20,586 
francs. The section of the Federation of Bourses consisted 
now of 135 Bourses with 1,609 syndicats; it collected in 
dues 11,821 francs, and had a total budget of 15,566 francs. 

The report of the Confederal Committee again called 
forth the attacks of " reformist " syndicalists, but was ap- 



XV Congres Corporatif (Amiens, 1906), p. 3. 



iyo THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [ 400 

proved by 781 votes against 115 (21 blank and 10 con- 
tested). But the main question which absorbed the largest 
part of the work of the Congress was the relation of the 
General Confederation of Labor to the Socialist Party. 

This question had again assumed a new character. The 
International Socialist Congress of Amsterdam (1904) had 
exhorted and advised the French Socialists to accomplish 
as soon as possible the unification of their separate parties 
into one national Socialist Party. In April, 1905, a " Con- 
gress of Unification " was held at Paris, at which the Parti 
Socialiste de France and the Parti Socialiste Frangais 
formed the Parti Socialiste Unifie. A common program 
was accepted and a new form of organization elaborated. 
At its first Congress in Chalons in October, 1905, the Uni- 
fied Party counted 35,000 paying members distributed in 
2,000 groups, 67 federations and yy departments. In the 
elections of 1906 the Unified Party obtained an increase 
of votes and elected 54 members to Parliament. 

It now seemed to many that there was no reason for the 
General Confederation of Labor to keep aloof from the 
Socialist Party. The reason heretofore given was that the 
divisions in the Socialist Party disorganized the syndicats, 
but since the Socialist Party was now unified, the reason 
lost all significance, and it seemed possible to establish some 
form of union between the two organizations. The ques- 
tion was taken up soon after the unification of the Social- 
ist Party by the " Federation of Textile Workers " who 
had it inserted in the program of the coming Congress of 
Amiens. The question was discussed for some time before 
the Congress in the socialist and syndicalist press, and the 
decision that would be taken could have been foreseen from 
the discussion. 

M. Renard, the Secretary of the " Federation of Textile 
Workers/' defended the proposition that permanent rela- 



4 Oi] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR iyi 

tions should be established between the General Confedera- 
tion and the Unified Socialist Party. His argument was 
that in the struggle of the working-class for emancipation, 
various methods must be used, and that various forms of 
organization were accordingly necessary. The syndicat, in 
his opinion, could not suffice for all purposes ; it was an in- 
strument in economic struggles against employers, but by 
the side of this economic action, political action must be 
carried on to obtain protective labor legislation. For this 
purpose he considered it necessary to maintain relations 
with the Socialist Party, which had " always proposed and 
voted laws having for their object the amelioration of the 
conditions of the working-class as well as their definitive 
emancipation." x Besides, argued M. Renard, " if a revo- 
lutionary situation should be created to-day," the syndicats 
now in existence, with their present organization could not 
" regulate production and organize exchange," and " would 
be compelled to make use of the machinery of the govern- 
ment ". The co-operation of the Confederation with the 
Socialist Party, therefore, was useful and necessary from 
the point of view both of the present and of the future. 

M. Renard repudiated the accusation that he meant to 
introduce politics into the syndicats or to fuse the latter 
in the Socialist Party. On the contrary, he accused the 
Confederal Committee of carrying on political agitation 
under the cover of neutrality. Against this " special poli- 
tics " his proposition was directed. " When anti-militar- 
ism is carried on," said M. Renard, " when anti-patriot- 
ism is indulged in, when [electoral] abstention is preached, 
it is politics." 2 This anarchistic policy has prevailed since 
the " libertarians have invaded the Confederation and have 
transformed the latter into a war-engine against the Social - 

1 XV Congres Corporatif (Amiens, 1906), pp. 135-6. 
* Ibid., p. 134. 



iy 2 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [402 

ist Party. The Federation of Textile Workers wants to 
put an end to the present state of affairs." * 

The proposition of the Textile workers was combated 
by revolutionary and " reformist " syndicalists alike. M. 
Keufer, who had bitterly attacked the revolutionary syndi- 
calists at Bourges (1904), now fought the political syndi- 
calists. He agreed with M. Renard that political action 
was necessary though he did not place " too great hopes in 
legislative action and in the intervention of the State " ; 
still he thought that the latter was inevitable, and alluded to 
the fact that the revolutionary syndicalists themselves were 
constantly soliciting the intervention of the public au- 
thorities. But to secure a successful parallel economic 
and political action, M. Keufer believed that it was better 
for the Confederation to remain entirely independent of 
the Socialist Party, and he proposed a resolution repudiat- 
ing both " anarchist and anti-parliamentarian agitation M 
and permanent relations with any political party. 2 

The revolutionary syndicalists in their turn criticised the 
part assigned to the syndicat both by the political syndical- 
ists and by the " reformists ". They emphasized the " inte- 
gral " and revolutionary role of the syndicat which makes 
it unnecessary and dangerous to conclude any alliance with 
any political party. They denied that the Confederal Com- 
mittee was carrying on an anarchist propaganda. Said M. 
Griffuelhes : 

Keufer insists very much on the presence of libertarians in the 
Confederal Committee; they are not so numerous as the legend 
has it ; this is only a stratagem to arouse the fear of an anar- 
chist peril which does not exist. On the contrary, the vitality 
of the Confederation is the result of a cooperation of various 

1 XV Congres Corporatif (Amiens, 1906), p. 165. 

2 Ibid., pp. 154-157. 



4 03] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR ij$ 

political elements. When, after the entrance of M. Millerand 
into the government, the latter began its policy of "domesti- 
cating " the workingmen, a coalition of Anarchists, Guesdists, 
Blanquists, Allemanists and other elements took place in order 
to isolate the government from the syndicats. This coalition 
has maintained itself and has been the very life of the Confed- 
eration. 1 

The proposition of the Textile Federation was rejected 
by 724 votes against 34 (37 blank). The defeat for the 
political syndicalists was complete. By an overwhelming 
majority of 830 against 8 (one blank), the Congress 
adopted the following proposition of Griffuelhes: 

The Confederal Congress of Amiens confirms article 2 of 
the constitution of the General Federation. 

The C. G. T. groups, independent of all political schools, 
all the workingmen who are conscious of the struggle to be 
carried on for the disappearance of the wage system. ... 

The Congress considers that this declaration is a recognition 
of the class struggle which, on an economic basis, places the 
workingmen in revolt against all forms of exploitation and 
oppression, material and moral, put into operation by the capi- 
talist class against the working class. 

The Congress makes this theoretic affirmation more precise 
by adding the following points : 

With regard to the every-day demands, syndicalism pursues 
the coordination of the efforts of the workingmen, the increase 
of the workingmen's welfare through the realization of imme- 
diate ameliorations, such as the diminution of working hours, 
the increase of wages, etc. 

But this is only one aspect of its work; syndicalism is pre- 
paring the integral emancipation which can be realized only 
by the expropriation of the capitalist class; it commends as a 
means to this end the general strike, and considers that the 

1 XV Congres Corporatif (Amiens, 1906), p. 167. 



iy 4 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [404 

syndicat, now a group of resistance, in the future will be the 
group of production and of distribution, the basis of social 
organization. 

The Congress declares that this double task of every-day 
life and of the future follows from the very situation of the 
wage-earners, which exerts its pressure upon the working- 
class and which makes it a duty for all workingmen, whatever 
their opinions or their political and philosophical tendencies, 
to belong to the essential group which is the syndicat; conse- 
quently, so far as individuals are concerned, the Congress de- 
clares entire liberty for every syndicalist to participate, outside 
of the trade organization, in any forms of struggle which cor- 
respond to his philosophical or political ideas, confining itself 
only to asking of him, in return, not to introduce into the 
syndicat the opinions which he professes outside of it. 

In so far as organizations are concerned, the Congress de- 
cides that, in order that syndicalism may attain its maximum 
of effectiveness, economic action should be exercised directly 
against the class of employers, and the Confederal organiza- 
tions must not, as syndical groups, pay any attention to parties 
and sects which, outside and by their side, may pursue in full 
liberty the transformation of society. 

The vote on this resolution showed that all parties inter- 
preted the resolution in their own way. To the " reform- 
ists " it meant complete political neutrality, to the political 
syndicalists it emphasized the liberty of political action out- 
side the syndicat; the revolutionary syndicats saw in the 
resolution, the " Charter of French Syndicalism " in which 
their theories were succinctly formulated. 

After the Congress of Amiens the General Confederation 
continued its policy of direct action. During 1907 it 
helped the movement for a law on a weekly rest (Repos 
Hebdamodaire) which was carried on by the commercial 
employees and by workingmen of certain trades. The 
movement expressed itself often in street demonstrations 



4 05] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR ly^ 

and riotous gatherings and brought the Confederation into 
conflict with the government 

The government of M. Clemenceau took a determined 
attitude towards the Confederation. Papers like the Temps 
called upon the government to dissolve the Confederation. 
" Against syndicalism," wrote the Temps, " are valid all 
the arguments of law and of fact as against anarchy." 
Members of the Confederal Committee were arrested here 
and there for incendiary speeches and for anti-militaristic 
propaganda. In the Chamber of Deputies the Confedera- 
tion was the subject of a heated debate which lasted sev- 
eral days, and in which radicals, conservatives, socialists, 
and members of the government took part. 

The Confederal Committee in its turn vehemently at- 
tacked the government. In June, 1907, troubles occurred 
among the wine-growers in the south of France, and blood 
was shed. The Confederal Committee launched a mani- 
festo against the government with the heading, " Govern- 
ment of Assassins," in which it praised one of the regi- 
ments that had refused to shoot into the crowd at the order 
of the officers. 

The government instituted a legal proceeding against 
twelve members of the Confederal Committee for " insults 
to the army ". The trial took place in February, 1908; all 
the accused were acquitted. 

In June, 1908, a strike in one of the towns near Paris, 
Draveuil, occasioned the intervention of the police. Shoot- 
ing took place, one workingman was killed, one mortally 
wounded, and several others severely wounded. On the 4th 
of June the Confederal Committee published a protest call- 
ing the government " a government of assassins " and 
Premier Clemenceau. " Clemenceau the murderer " (Clem- 
enceau le Tueur) and called upon the syndicats to protest 
against the action of the government. As the strike in 



lj£> THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [ 4 q6 

Draveuil was among workingmen of the building trades, 
the " Federation of the Building Trades/' the most revo- 
lutionary syndical organization in France, took the lead in 
the movement, seconded by the Confederal Committee. 
Manifestations took place at the funerals of the killed 
workingmen in Draveuil and Villeneuve St. George (neigh- 
boring communes) in which bloody collisions with the 
police were avoided with difficulty. The " Federation of 
the Building Trades " and many members of the Confed- 
eral Committee advocated a general strike as a protest 
against the action of the government. 

Meanwhile the strike at Draveuil was going on. On the 
27th of July a collision between the police and the strikers 
again took place, and the " Federation of Building Trades" 
decided upon a general strike and upon a manifestation for 
the 30th of July. Some members of the Confederal Com- 
mittee, the Secretary Griffuelhes, for instance, were opposed 
to the manifestation, but the decision was taken against 
their advice. 

The manifestation of Villeneuve St. George resulted in 
a violent collision; there were many killed and wounded. 
The agitation grew, and the Confederal Committee together 
with the federal committee of the Building Trades called 
upon the other trades to join them in a general strike to 
be continued as a protest against the " massacres ". The 
call of the Confederal Committee was only partly fol- 
lowed. 

The events of Villeneuve St. George aroused the press 
and the government against the Confederation. The "Con- 
federal Committee," wrote the Temps, " is not an instru- 
ment for trade conquests. It is a purely insurrectional 
Committee. It should be treated as such." The govern- 
ment arrested all the leading members of the Confederal 
Committee. 



4 07] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR iyy 

On the 4th of August, as a move against the government, 
the Confederal Committee which constituted itself after 
the arrests and of which M. Luquet was temporary secre- 
tary, admitted the Federation of Miners with 60,000 mem- 
bers into the Confederation. The Federation of Miners 
had for some time expressed its wish to enter the Confed- 
eration, but certain difficulties, more or less personal, had 
stood in the way. After Villeneuve St. George these diffi- 
culties were smoothed and the adherence of the Miners to 
the Confederation was made possible. 

The events of Villeneuve St. George aroused some pro- 
tests within the Confederation. The collisions and the 
bloodshed were ascribed by the opponents of the Confed- 
eral Committee to its revolutionary methods and " anar- 
chist " tactics. The polemics between the " reformist " 
and " revolutionary " elements which had not ceased since 
the Congress of Amiens now became more and more bitter. 

In September, 1908, the Congress of the Confederation 
met at Marseilles. The reports to the Congress showed 
that the Section of Federations of industries counted 68 
federal organizations with 2,586 syndicats and 294,398 
members; total receipts amounted to 24,719 francs. The 
Section of Bourses counted 157 Bourses dn Travail with 
2,028 syndicats and with a budget of 16,081 francs. 

The Congress of Marseilles expressed its sympathy with 
the arrested members of the Confederation, and "denounced 
before the entire public the abominable procedures "of the 
government. The reports of the Confederal Committee 
were approved by 947 with none against and 109 blanks, 
" not because the members of the Confederal Bureau are 
arrested, but because the acts of the Bureau and of the 
Confederal Committee have been the expression of the 
mandate entrusted to them." 

The Congress of Marseilles rejected the proposition to 



1 78 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [ 40 g 

apply the principle of proportional representation which 
was again advanced. It discussed the question of indus- 
trial and trade unionism and decided in favor of the former, 
inviting all trade federations to fuse into industrial fed- 
erations. 

But the main question which agitated the Congress was 
that of anti-militarism. At Amiens • (1906) an anti-mili- 
taristic resolution introduced by Yvetot (Secretary of the 
Section of Bourses du Travail) had been passed. But it 
was passed in a hurry, as there was no time to discuss it, 
and it raised strong opposition among the " reformist " 
elements. It was taken to the Congress of Marseilles, there- 
fore, for another discussion. 

The Congress of Marseilles accepted the resolution in- 
troduced by Yvetot. This resolution read : 

The Congress of Marseilles, repeats and renders more pre- 
cise the decision of Amiens, namely : 

Considering that the army tends more and more to take the 
places of the workingmen on strike in the factory, on the fields, 
in the workshop, when it has not the function of shooting them, 
as in Narbonnes, Raon-L'Etape, and Villeneuve St. George ; 

Considering that the exercise of the right to strike will be 
only a fraud as long as the soldiers agree to substitute the 
workers in civil work and to massacre the workingmen, the 
Congress, keeping within purely economic limits, recommends 
the instruction of the recruits (jeunes) in order that on the day 
when they put on the military uniform they should be convinced 
that they should remain nevertheless members of the family 
of workingmen and that in the conflict between capital and 
labor their duty is not to use their arms against their brethren, 
the workingmen ; 

Considering that the geographical boundaries are modifiable 
at the will of the possessors, the workingmen recognize only 
the economic boundaries separating the two class-enemies — 
the working class and the capitalist class. 



409] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR Y yg 

The Congress repeats the formula of the International: 
11 The workingmen have no fatherland ;" and adds : 

That whereas, consequently, every war is but an outrage (at- 
tentat) against the workingmen; that it is a bloody and ter- 
rible means of diverting them from their demands, the Congress 
declares it necessary, from the international point of view, to 
enlighten the workingmen, in order that in case of war they 
may reply to the declaration of war by a declaration of a revo- 
lutionary general strike. 1 

The resolution was adopted by 681 votes against 421 
and 43 blank. Many voted against the resolution because 
of its anti-patriotic character, though they accepted the part 
bearing upon the use of the army in strikes. 

In November, 1909, the government freed the arrested 
members of the Confederal Committee, but they did not 
regain their former positions of authority. In February, 
1909, the "reformist" elements succeeded in electing as sec- 
retary of the Confederation their candidate, M. Niel, who 
was once a revolutionary but had become more moderate. 
M. Niel was elected by a majority of one vote, and his 
position was very difficult in the Confederal Committee. 
He aimed, as he expressed it, to bring about " moral unity " 
in the Confederation, but was hampered in his activities by 
the revolutionaries and not sufficiently supported by the 
" reformists ". 

In March, 1909, the Post Office employees went on strike. 
The Confederation took no part in the movement but in- 
vited the workingmen to sympathize with the strikers. 
The strike was successful, and the government promised to 
consider the grievances of the Post Office employees whose 
main demand was the removal of the Secretary of the De- 
partment. 

1 XVI Congrks National Corporatif, p. 213. 



!8o THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [ 4I0 

The promises of the government were unofficial and the 
strikers after some time claimed that the government had 
not kept its word. A second strike followed in May, but 
there was less enthusiasm among the employees, and a fail- 
ure was inevitable. The leaders of the strike appealed to 
the Confederation for help. The Confederal Committee 
invited the workingmen of Paris to go out on a general 
strike, but the invitation of the Confederation found almost 
no response, and the Post Office employees returned to 
work. 

The failure was ascribed to the " reformists ", M. Guer- 
ard, 1 secretary of the Railway Workers, and to M. Niel, 
who had delivered a speech on the eve of the general strike 
declaring that the miners were not ready for it. This 
speech, the revolutionaries alleged, produced an impression 
disastrous for the general strike. 

May 28, 1909, Niel resigned. The new elections secured 
the triumph of the revolutionary syndicalists again. Jou- 
haux and Yvetot were elected secretaries and have re- 
mained in this position to the present time. 2 

The dissensions between " reformists " and " revolution- 
aries " became still more acute after the resignation of M. 
Niel. The rumor that the " reformist " syndicats would 
leave the Confederation circulated more persistently than 
before. The " reformists " formed in July, 1909, a Comite 
d' Union Syndicaliste to react against the anarchistic syndi- 
calism, to realize the union of workingmen, independent of 
all politics, in the exclusively economic and industrial do- 
main. 3 The situation was considered very critical by both 
the friends and enemies of the Confederation. 

Since 1910, the Confederation has passed out of the 

1 M. Guerard, once revolutionary, had become moderate. 

2 December, 191 1. 

3 G. Weill, Histoire du Mouvement Social du France, p. 386. 



4 n] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR ^i 

acute stage of this " crisis ". The Congress of Toulouse, 
in October, 1910, showed that the Confederation had con- 
tinued to increase in strength and numbers since 1908. The 
Section of National Federations now counted 57 organi- 
zations (instead of 63 in 1908), the decrease being due to 
the fact that many trade federations had fused into indus- 
trial federations. These 57 federal organizations num- 
bered 3,012 syndicats with 357,814 members. The total 
budget of both sections was 67,981 francs, of which 37,828 
had been received in dues. 

The growth of the Confederation since 1902 in its rela- 
tion to the growth of the syndical movement may be judged 
from the following table : 



Year 


Total 
Number of 
Syndicats 


Total 

Number of 

Organized 

Workingmen 


Syndicats 
Adhering to 
Confederation 


Members of 
Confederation 


1902 . . . 


3,680 


614,204 


1,043 





1904 • 


4,227 


715,576 


1,792 


150,000 


1906 • • 


4,857 


836,134 


2,399 


203,273 


1908 


5,524 


957,102 


2,586 


294,398 


1910 . . 


5,260 


977,350 


3,012 


357,814 



The Congress of Toulouse again adopted an anti-militar- 
istic resolution ; its principal practical resolution was on the 
Old' Age Pension law. Accepting the principle of the law, 
the Confederation was against the main features of the law 
passed in April, 19 10, namely against the obligation of 
workingmen to contribute to the funds by a regular deduc- 
tion from their wages and against the system of capitaliza- 
tion. The Congress authorized the Confederal Committee 
to carry on an active campaign against the law. 



182 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [ 4I2 

111 June, 191 1, the Confederation held its second annual 
conference at Paris. The Conference pointed out as a 
practical means of struggle against the old-age pension law, 
the burning of the livrets. The Conference also decided to 
start a new campaign similar to that of 1906 for the dimin- 
ution of hours of labor and for the " English week " {La 
Semaine Anglaise). A resolution was also adopted pro- 
hibiting any confederal functionary from becoming a can- 
didate for political office. 1 

During 1910-11, the Confederation carried on a cam- 
paign against the high cost of living which it ascribed to 
speculation and to the protective system. In the recent 
riots in the north of France, against the increased cost of 
living, the Bourses du Travail and leading members of the 
Confederation took an active part. In fact, the whole 
movement has been ascribed by the newspapers to the Con- 
federation. 

During the recent diplomatic difficulties over Morocco, 
the General Confederation arranged international meet- 
ings in Madrid, Berlin and Paris to protest against war. 
The Confederation had expressed similar protests in 1901 
during the Boer war, in 1904 during the Russo-Japanese 
war, and in 1905 during the Franco-German difficulties. 
The motto of the Confederation is " Rather Insurrection 
than War ". The recent international meetings were more 
numerously attended and imposing than ever before. Over 
a hundred delegates from almost all organizations of the 
Confederation took part in the demonstration in Berlin, 
and the meetings in Paris were attended by delegates from 
Germany, Spain, England and other countries. 

In the month of August, 191 1, the General Confederation 
took part in the Conference of the International Secretariat 
held at Budapest. These Conferences have been held 

1 La Voix du Peuple, 2-9 July, 191 1; 9-16 July, 191 1. 



4 I 3 ] THE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF LABOR ^3 

every two years since 1903 by the secretaries of the ad- 
hering National Trade Union Centers. 1 The General Con- 
federation took part in the Conference of Dublin in 1903, 
but sent no delegates to the Conferences of Amsterdam 
(1905) or of Christiana (1907) because these confer- 
ences refused to discuss the questions of the general strike 
and of anti-militarism. The relations of the Confedera- 
tion to the International Secretariat have been much dis- 
cussed at the Congresses of the Confederation and in 
the press. The Congress of Marseilles, though approv- 
ing the policy of the Confederal Committee, recommended 
that the latter enter into closer relations with the Interna- 
tional Secretariat. Since then the Confederation has taken 
part in the Conference of Paris in 1909 2 and in that of 
Budapest (1911). 

In the International organization the Confederation tries 
to enforce its views on the labor movement and advocates 
the organization of International Labor Congresses. Its 
ideas meet here, however, with the opposition of Ameri- 
can, English, German and Austrian trades unions. The 
latter are the more numerous. Germany pays dues to the 
International Secretariat for 2,017,000 organized working- 
men; the United States for 1,700,000; England for 725,- 
000; Austria for 480,000; France for 340,000. The total 
number of organized workingmen affiliated with the In- 
ternational Secretariat is 6,033,500. At its recent Confer- 
ence in Paris (June, 191 1), the Confederation decided to 
pay to the International Secretariat for 450,000 members. 

1 The first two conferences were held at Halberstadt (1900) and at 
Stuttgart (1902). 

2 An account of the Paris conference is given in Mr. Gompers' 
Labor in Europe and America (New York, 1910). 



CHAPTER VIII 

Character and Conditions of Revolutionary 
Syndicalism 

The history of the General Confederation of Labor as 
told in the preceding chapters has brought out in a general 
way the character of revolutionary syndicalism and the 
conditions which have influenced its rise and development. 
It remains now in this last chapter to emphasize the prin- 
cipal points and to strengthen them by a more complete 
analysis of facts and conditions. 

It has been maintained throughout this work that revo- 
lutionary syndicalism is the result of a bloc of the revolu- 
tionary elements in the Confederation. This character of 
a bloc is denied by many. Those hostile to the Confedera- 
tion are anxious to create the impression that the latter is 
exclusively the creation and the tool of the anarchists. 
Others more or less impartial fail to acknowledge the part 
played in the movement by the non-anarchist elements. 
Some anarchists themselves are only too glad to be con- 
sidered the creators of the movement and to maintain a 
view which is a tribute to their organizing ability and to 
their influence. 

Many revolutionary syndicalists, however, protest against 
being considered anarchists. Some of them are active 
members of the Unified Socialist Party. Others do not 
belong to the Socialist party, but have never been connected 
with the Anarchists. They are revolutionary syndicalists, 
" pure and simple ". And these two other elements are by 
184 [414 



415] CHARACTER AND CONDITIONS ^5 

no means less influential in the Confederation than the An- 
archists. 

The three elements enumerated have somewhat different 
ways of regarding revolutionary syndicalism. To the an- 
archists revolutionary syndicalism is but a partial applica- 
tion of anarchist ideas. M. Yvetot, secretary of the sec- 
tion of Bourses, said at the recent Congress of Toulouse 
(1910) : " I am reproached with confusing syndicalism and 
anarchism. It is not my fault if anarchism and syndical- 
ism have the same ends in view. The former pursues the 
integral emancipation of the individual; the latter the in- 
tegral emancipation of the workingman. I find the whole 
of syndicalism in anarchism." l 

To the revolutionary socialists in the Confederation 
syndicalism is the primary and fundamental form of revo- 
lutionary socialism. It does not exclude, however, other 
forms ; on the contrary, it must be completed by the politi- 
cal organization of the Socialist party, because it has no 
answer of its own to many social problems. 

The third group of revolutionary syndicalists regards 
revolutionary syndicalism as self-sufficing and independent 
of both anarchism and socialism. This group, like the 
first, emphasizes the fact that there is an irreconcilable 
antagonism between syndicalism and political socialism. 
" It is necessary," writes Jouhaux, secretary of the Con- 
federation, " that the proletariat should know that between 
parliamentary socialism, which is tending more and more 
toward a simple democratization of existing social forms, 
and syndicalism, which pursues the aim of a complete social 
transformation, there is not only divergence of methods, 
but particularly divergence of aims, 2 

1 La Vie Ouvriere, 20 Oct., 1910, p. 483 ; XVII Congres National 
Corporatif (Toulouse, 1910), p. 226. 

2 L. Jouhaux, Le Terrassier, 20 June, 191 1. 



1 86 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [ 4I 6 

Those who consciously call themselves revolutionary 
syndicalists belong to one of the groups described, and the 
three groups constitute the bloc spoken of above. To un- 
derstand revolutionary syndicalism means to understand 
this bloc of revolutionary elements, how it was made pos- 
sible, why it is maintained, and what conditions have se- 
cured for it the leadership in the General Confederation of 
Labor. 

It has been shown in the preceding chapters that since 
1830 a considerable part of the French workingmen, the 
so-called " militant " workingmen, have always cherished 
the hope of a " complete " or " integral " emancipation 
which should free them from the wage-system and from 
the economic domination of the individual employer. The 
desire of independence had guided the life of the journey- 
man under the guild-system, and its birth under modern 
economic conditions is natural enough to need no explana- 
tion. But while under the guild-system this desire had an 
individualistic character, under the technical conditions of 
the present time it necessarily leads to collectivist ideas. 
With the development of highly expensive means of pro- 
duction, only an insignificant number of workingmen may 
hope to become economically independent by individual 
action, and the only way to attain economic freedom and 
equality for all seems to be the collective appropriation of 
the means of production and the collective management of 
industrial activities. 

The energetic, alert and militant workingmen are thus 
thrown back upon their class with whose lot they have to 
cast their own. They have to appeal to their fellow-work- 
ers, to stimulate the feelings of class-solidarity and to de- 
vote themselves to the intellectual and moral preparation 
of their class for the attainment of the common end. Their 
individual desires and hopes are thus merged in and iden- 






417] CHARACTER AND CONDITIONS 187 

tified with a group-ideal, in their case with the ideal of 
social emancipation and of collectivism. 

The insistence on economic freedom — in the sense indi- 
cated — runs through all the literature of the French Labor 
Movement. It is not only and not so much the inequality 
of wealth, the contrasts of distribution that stimulate the 
militant workingmen to their collectivist hopes, as it is 
the protest against the " arbitrariness " of the individual 
employer and the ideal of a " free workshop ". To attain 
the latter is the main thing and forms the program of the 
General Confederation as formulated in the first clause of 
its statutes. 

The sensitiveness to economic inferiority is increased in 
the French militant workingmen by the fact that in a coun- 
try like France economic distinctions are combined with 
social distinctions. Owing to the traditions of the past, 
economic classes are separated by a number of other ele- 
ments, in which intellectual, social and other influences 
combine and which transform the economic classes into 
social classes. The aspiration towards economic equality 
increases, therefore, in volume and becomes a striving a^fter 
social equality. 

The historical traditions of France combined with the 
impatience for emancipation explain the revolutionary 
spirit of the French socialist workingman. All who have 
come into contact with French life have convinced them- 
selves of the power which the revolutionary traditions of 
the past exert over the people. The French workingman 
is brought up in the admiration of the men of the Great 
Revolution; his modern history is full of revolutionary 
secret societies, of insurrections, and of revolutionary 
struggles. He cherishes the memory of the Revolution of 
1848, his indignation is aroused by the story of the Days 
of June, his pity and sympathy are stimulated by the events 



1 88 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [ 4I 8 

of the Commune. Looking backward into the history of 
the past century and a half, he can only get the feeling of 
political instability, and the conviction is strengthened in 
him that " his " revolution will come just as the revolution 
of the " Third-Estate " had come. Combined with the de- 
sire to attain the " integral " emancipation as soon as pos- 
sible, these conditions engender in him the revolutionary 
spirit. 1 

The revolutionary spirit predisposes the socialist work- 
ingman to a skeptical attitude toward parliamentary action 
which rests on conciliation and on compromise and is slow 
in operation. He seeks for other methods which seem to 
promise quicker results. The methods themselves may 
change ; they were insurrection once, they are now the gen- 
eral strike. But the end they serve remains the same: to 
keep up the hope of a speedy liberation. 

The distrust of parliamentary methods has been strength- 
ened in the French socialist workingman by another fact. 
The French workingmen have seen their political leaders 
rise to the very top, become Ministers and Premiers (e. g., 
Millerand, Vivani, Briand), and then turn against their 
" comrades " of old. The feeling has been thereby created 
in the socialist workingmen that parliamentary methods 
are merely a means to a brilliant career for individuals who 
know how to make use of them. 

The mistrust of " politicians " finds some nourishment 
also in the fact that the political leaders of the Socialist 
movement are generally also the " intellectuals ", between 
whom and the workingmen there is also some antagonism. 
The " intellectuals " are thrown out upon the social arena 
principally by the lower and middle bourgeoisie and gen- 

1 On the peculiar character of French history see Adams, Growth of 
the French Nation; Berry, France since Waterloo; Barrett Wendell, 
France of To-day. 



4 I 9 ] CHARACTER AND CONDITIONS jgg 

erally enter the liberal professions. But whether lawyer, 
writer, doctor or teacher, the French " intellectual " sooner 
or later enters the field of " politics " which allures him by 
the vaster possibilities it seems to offer. In fact, the " in- 
tellectual " has always been a conspicuous figure in the his- 
tory of French Socialism. As a socialist poet, Pierre Du- 
pont, sang, 

" Socialism has two wings, 
The student and the workingman." 

And as the socialist ideas have spread, the number of " in- 
tellectuals " in the socialist movement has been constantly 
increasing. 

The " two wings " of the Socialists, however, cannot per- 
fectly adapt themselves to one another. The "intellectual" 
generally lacks the " impatience for deliverance " which 
characterizes the socialist workingman. The "intellectual" 
is bound by more solid ties to the status quo; his intellectual 
preoccupations predispose him to a calmer view of things, 
to regard society as a slow evolutionary process. Besides, 
the " intellectual " takes pride in the fact that he supplies 
" the proletariat with fresh elements of enlightenment and 
progress " ; he is inclined, therefore, to dominate the work- 
ingman as his " minor brother ", and to advocate methods 
which secure his own predominant part in the movement. 
Parliamentary action is the field best adapted to his char- 
acter and powers. The socialist workingman, on the other 
hand, protests against the tendencies of the " intellectual ", 
particularly against the dominating impulses of the latter. 
He is anxious to limit the powers of his leaders, if pos- 
sible, and to create such forms of organization as shall as- 
sure his own independence. 

When the syndicats began to develop in France, the revo- 
lutionary workingmen seized upon them as a form of or- 



I 9 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [420 

ganization particularly adapted to their demands. The 
syndicat was an organization which could take up the ideal 
of social emancipation ; in the general strike, which the syn- 
dicat seemed to carry within itself, there was a method of 
speedy liberation; the syndicat excluded the "intellectuals" 
and above all by its " direct action " it maintained and 
strengthened the revolutionary spirit and safeguarded the 
revolutionary ideal from the compromises and dangers to 
which " politics " and the parliamentary socialists sub- 
jected it. 

These conditions: the hope of social emancipation, the 
impatience for deliverance, the revolutionary spirit, and the 
defiance of the " intellectuals " and of the " politicians ", 
gave and continue to give life to revolutionary syndicalism. 
They brought into being the " revolutionary bloc " in the 
General Confederation of Labor and maintain it there. 
Of course, differences of temperament and shadings of 
opinion exist. On the one extreme are those who are 
most vehement in their propaganda and who combat the 
Socialist party; on the other, are the revolutionary social- 
ists who are disposed to co-operate with the parliamentary 
socialists, but who want to have an independent organiza- 
tion to fall back upon in case of disagreement with the 
political party. But differing in details, the revolutionary 
elements agree in the main points and they stamp upon the 
Confederation the character which it bears and which is 
described in the terms " revolutionary syndicalism ". 

The opponents of the revolutionary syndicalists claim 
that the latter are followed only by a minority in the Gen- 
eral Confederation and that they maintain their leadership 
by means of the existing system of representation and by 
other more or less arbitrary devices. This statement, how- 
ever, cannot be proved in any satisfactory way. 

The best way of obtaining the exact number of revolu- 



4 2I ] CHARACTER AND CONDITIONS I9I 

tionary syndicalists in the Confederation would seem to be 
by means of an analysis of the votes taken at the Con- 
gresses. This method, however, is defective for several 
reasons. In the first place, not all the syndicats adhering 
to the Confederation are represented at the Congresses. 
At the Congress of Bourges (1904), 1,178 syndicats out 
of 1,792 were represented; at the Congress of Amiens, 
1,040 out of 2,399; at the Congress of Marseilles, 1,102 
out of 2,586, and at the Congress of Toulouse, 1,390 out 
of 3,012. It is evident, therefore, that even if all the votes 
were taken unanimously, they would still express the opin- 
ion of less than half the syndicats of the Confederation. 

In the second place, the votes of the Confederation being 
taken by syndicats, to get the exact figures it would be nec- 
essary to know how many syndicats in each federation are 
revolutionary or not, and what is the proportional strength 
of both tendencies in each syndicat. This is impossible in 
the present state of statistical information furnished by 
the Confederation. 

At the Congress of Amiens, for instance, the vote ap- 
proving the report of the Confederal Committee (Section 
of Federation) stood 815 against 106 (18 blanks). This 
vote is important, because to approve or to reject the re- 
port meant to approve or to reject the ideas by which the 
General Confederation was guided. 

Now, an analysis of the vote at Amiens shows that while 
some oganizations voted solidly for the Confederal 
Committee, none voted solidly against it and that the votes 
of many organizations were divided. But even the num- 
ber of those represented by the unanimous vote of their 
syndicats cannot in the most cases be ascertained. For in- 
stance, the agricultural syndicats cast their 28 votes for 
the Confederal Committee; the report of the Confederal 
Committee gives the Federation of Agricultural Laborers 



192 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [ 422 

4,405 members; but the same report says that the Federa- 
tion consisted of 106 syndicats; of these 106 syndicats only 
28 were represented at the Congress, and how many mem- 
bers they represented there is no possibility of ascertaining. 
The same is true of those Federations in which the syndi- 
cats did not cast the same vote. 

This difficulty is felt by those who try to prove by figures 
that the Confederation is dominated by a minority. M. Ch. 
Franck, for instance, calculates that at the Congress of 
Marseilles 46 organizations with 716 mandates represent- 
ing 143,191 members obtained the majority for the statu 
quo against the proposition of proportional representation; 
while the minority consisted of 15 organizations with 379 
mandates representing 145,440 members. In favor of the 
anti-militaristic resolution, he calculates further, 33 or- 
ganizations with 670 mandates representing 114,491 mem- 
bers obtained the majority against 19 organizations with 
406 mandates representing 126,540 members. But he is 
compelled to add immediately : " These figures have no ab- 
solute value, because we have taken each organization in 
its entirety, while in the same federation some syndicats 
have not voted with the majority " ; he thinks that the pro- 
portion remains nevertheless the same because he did not 
take into consideration the divisions on each side. 1 

The last assumption, however, is arbitrary, because the 
syndicats dissenting on the one side may have been more 
numerous than those not voting with the majority on the 
other side; the whole calculation, besides, is fallacious, be- 
cause it takes the figures of the federations in their entirety, 
while only a part of the syndicats composing them took 
part in the votes. 

The attempt, therefore, to estimate the exact number of 
the revolutionary syndicalists in the Confederation must be 

1 Op. cit., pp. 345-6. 



423] CHARACTER AND CONDITIONS Z g^ 

given up for the present. The approximate estimate on 
either side only can be given. According to M. Pawlowski, 1 
250,000 members of the Confederation (out of 400,000) 
repudiate the revolutionary doctrine; the revolutionary 
syndicalists, on the other hand, claim a majority of two- 
thirds for themselves. The impartial student must leave 
the question open. 

It must be pointed out, however, that the system of repre- 
sentation which exists now in the Confederation, affects 
both revolutionary and reformist syndicalists in a more or 
less equal degree. At the Congress of Amiens, for in- 
stance, the Federation du Livre, with its 10,000 members, 
had 125 votes; the Railway Syndicat, with its 24,275 mem- 
bers, had only 36 votes; these two organizations were 
among the " reformists " who combated the Confederal 
Committee. On the other hand, the revolutionary Feder- 
ation of Metallurgy had 84 votes for its 14,000 members, 
but the Federation of Marine, which is also revolutionary, 
disposed of six votes only for its 12,000 members. The 
revolutionary syndicalists, therefore, may be right in their 
assertion that proportional representation would not change 
the leadership of the Confederation. This belief is strength- 
ened in them by the fact that in all so-called " reformist " 
organizations, as the Federation du Livre, the Railway 
Syndicat, etc., there are strong and numerous revolution- 
ary minorities. 

It is often asserted that only the small syndicats, mostly 
belonging to the small trades, follow the revolutionary syn- 
dicalists. This assertion, however, is inexact. An exami- 
nation of the syndicats which are considered revolutionary 
shows that some of them are very large and that others 
belong to the most centralized industries of France. For 

1 A. Pawlowski, La Confederation Generate du Travail (Paris, 
1910), p. 51. 



I9 4 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [424 

instance, the Federation of Building Trades is the most 
revolutionary organization in the Confederation and at the 
same time the most numerous. It counts now about 
100,000 members; its members pay the highest dues (after 
the Federation du Livre) in France. 1 

The revolutionary Federation of Metallurgy is also one 
of the large organizations in the Confederation; it counts 
about 25,000 members and belongs to an industry which 
is one of the most centralized in France. The total horse- 
power of machines used in the metallurgic industries has 
increased from 175,070 in 1891 to 419,128 in 1906; the 
number of establishments has diminished from 4,642 in 
1891 to 4,544 in 1906; that is, the total horse-power of 
machinery used in every industrial establishment has in- 
creased during this period from 38 to 92 ; 2 the number of 
workingmen per industrial establishment has also increased 
from 508 in 1896 to 697 in 1901 and to 711 in 1906. In 
fact the metallurgic industry occupies the second place 
after the mining industry which is the most centralized in 
France. 3 

A diversity of conditions prevails in the industries 
to which the other revolutionary organizations belong. 
On the other hand, the so-called reformist organizations, 
the Federation of Mines, the Federation du Livre, the Fed- 
eration of Employees, differ in many respects and are de- 
termined in their policy by many considerations and condi- 
tions which are peculiar to each one of them. 

The influence of the revolutionary syndicalists, there- 
fore, can be explained not by special technical conditions, 
but by general conditions which are economic, political and 

1 Mouvement Socialiste, May, 191 1. 

2 E. Thery, Les Progres £conomiqucs de la France (Paris, 1909). 
p. 181. 

3 Journal des Economistes, Jan., 1911, p. 133. 



425] CHARACTER AND CONDITIONS io ^ 

psychological. To bring out the relation of these condi- 
tions to the syndicalist doctrine it is necessary to analyze 
the latter into its constituent elements and to discuss them 
one by one. 

The fundamental condition which determines the policy 
of " direct action " is the poverty of French syndicalism. 
Except the Federation du Livre, only a very few federa- 
tions pay a more or less regular strike benefit ; the rest have 
barely means enough to provide for their administrative 
and organizing expenses and can not collect any strike 
funds worth mentioning. In 1908, for instance, there were 
1,073 strikes; of these 837 were conducted by organized 
workingmen. Only in 46 strikes was regular assistance 
assured for the strikers, and in 36 cases only was the assist- 
ance given in money. 1 The French workingmen, there- 
fore, are forced to fall back on other means during strikes. 
Quick action, intimidation, sabotage, are then suggested to 
them by their very situation and by their desire to win. 

The lack of financial strength explains also the enthu- 
siasm and the sentiments of general solidarity which char- 
acterize French strikes. An atmosphere of enthusiasm 
must be created in order to keep up the fighting spirit in 
the strikers. To the particular struggle in any one trade 
a wider and more general significance must be attributed; 
it must be interpreted as a partial manifestation of a more 
general class-struggle. In this way the determination to 
struggle on is strengthened in those who strike and a moral 
justification is created for an appeal to the solidarity of 
all workingmen. These appeals are made constantly dur- 
ing strikes. Subscription lists are kept in the Bourses da 
Travail, in the Confederal Committee on Strikes, and are 
opened in the workingmen's and socialist newspapers when- 
ever any big strike occurs. 

1 Statistique des Greves, 1909, vi-vii. 



196 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [ 42 6 

New means to make up for the lack of financial resources 
are constantly devised. Of these means two which have 
come into existence within recent years are the soupes com- 
munistes and the "exodus of children." The soupes commu- 
nistes are organized by the Bourses du Travail and consist 
of meals distributed to those on strike. The soupes com- 
munistes permit the feeding of a comparatively large num- 
ber of strikers at small expense. Distribution occurs at 
certain points. The workingmen, if they wish, may take 
their meals home. The last Conferences of the Section of 
Bourses have discussed the question how to organize these 
soupes communistes more systematically and as cheaply as 
possible. 

The " exodus of children " consists in sending away the 
children of the strikers to workingmen of other towns 
while the strike is going on. It has been used during sev- 
eral strikes and attracted widespread attention. The " ex- 
odus of children " relieves the strikers at home and creates 
sympathy for them over the country at large. 

Financial weakness has also led French syndicats in re- 
cent years to reconsider the question of co-operation. Var- 
ious federations have expressed themselves at their federal 
congresses in favor of "syndicalist co-operatives" in which 
all associates are at the same time members of the syndicat 
and organized on a communist basis. The main argument 
brought forward in favor of such co-operatives is the sup- 
port they could furnish to workingmen on strike. 

The poverty of the French syndicats is the result of the 
reluctance of the French workingmen to pay high dues. 
In the Federation du Livre, which has the highest dues, 
every member pays a little over two francs a month. In 
other federations the dues are lower, coming down in some 
organizations to 10 centimes a month. In recent years 
there has been a general tendency in all federations to in- 



427] CHARACTER AND CONDITIONS jgj 

1 
crease dues, but the efforts of the syndicalist functionaries 
in this direction have met with but slow and partial success. 

The reluctance to high dues is in part the result of the 
comparatively low wages which prevail in France. An- 
other factor is the psychology of the French workingman. 
" Our impulsive and rebellious (frondeur) temperament," 
wrote the Commission which organized the Congress of 
Montpellier, " does not lend itself to high dues, and if we 
are always ready to painful sacrifices of another nature, 
we have not yet been able to understand the enormous ad- 
vantages which would follow from strong syndicalist treas- 
uries maintained by higher assessments. ,, * The French 
workingmen are conscious of their peculiar traits, and the 
literature of the syndicalist movement is full of both jere- 
miads and panegyrics with regard to these traits, according 
to the speaker and to the circumstances. The French work- 
ingmen recognize that they lack method, persistence and 
foresight, while they are sensitive, impulsive and com- 
bative. 2 

The result of this psychology is not only poor syndicats, 
but syndicats weak in other respects. Many syndicats are 
but loosely held together, are easily dissolved and are com- 
posed of a more or less variable and shifting membership. 
The instability is increased of course by the absence of 
benevolent features in the syndicats. The Federation du 
Livre alone pays sick and other benefits. 

The weakness of the syndicats predisposes the French 
workingmen to more and more generalized forms of strug- 
gle. Syndicats on strike impelled by the desire to increase 
their forces try to involve as many trades and workingmen 
as possible and to enhance their own chances by enlarging 

1 XIII Congres National Corporatif, 1902, pp. 30-31. 
2 X Congres National Corporatif, p. 203 ; XII Congres National Cor- 
poratif, pp. 15, 29, 44 



I9 8 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [428 

the field of struggle. This is why such general movements, 
as the movement for an eight-hour day in 1906, described 
in the preceding chapter, are advocated by the syndicats. 
The latter feel that in order to gain any important demand 
they must be backed by as large a number of workingmen 
as possible. But in view of their weakness, the syndicats 
can start a large movement only by stirring up the country, 
by formulating some general demand which on the one 
hand appeals to all workingmen, while on the other hand 
it throws employers into consternation. The same condi- 
tions explain in part the favor which the idea of the gen- 
eral strike has found in the syndicats. 

Such forms of struggle must necessarily bring the syn- 
dicats into conflict with the State, particularly in France 
where the State is highly centralized and assumes so many 
functions. With a people so impulsive as the French, the 
intervention of the forces of the State in the economic 
struggles must inevitably lead to collisions of a more or 
less serious character. The result is a feeling of bitter- 
ness in the workingmen towards the army, the police and 
the government in general. The ground is thus prepared 
for anti-militaristic, anti-State and anti-patriotic ideas. 

The organized workingmen are a minority of the work- 
ing-class. Still they must act as if they were the majority 
or the entirety of the workingmen. The contradiction 
must be smoothed over by some explanation, and the theory 
of the " conscious minority " arises to meet the situation. 
The weaker the syndicats and the more often they are ex- 
posed to the danger of dissolution the greater the necessity 
of the theory. A disorganized syndicat generally leaves 
behind a handful of militant workingmen determined to 
keep up the organization. The theory of the " conscious 
minority " is both a stimulus to and a justification for the 
activities of these persistent " militants ". 



429] CHARACTER AND CONDITIONS igg 

To the conditions described the French love of theory, 
of high-sounding phrases, and of idealistic formulas must 
be added. For a Frenchman it is not sufficient to act 
under necessity: the act must be generalized into a prin- 
ciple, the principles systematized, and the system of theory 
compressed into concise and catching formulas. And once 
abstracted, systematized and formulated, the ideas become 
a distinct force exerting an influence in the same direction 
as the conditions to which they correspond. 

When all this is taken into account, it is easier to under- 
stand the influence of the revolutionary syndicalists. It is 
insufficient to explain their leadership, therefore, by any 
clever machinations of the Confederal Committee, as M. 
Mermeix and many others do. It is quite true that the 
Confederal Committee tries to maintain its power by all 
means possible. It sends out delegates to Federal Con- 
gresses, on conference tours over the country, to assist 
workingmen on strikes, etc. In most cases it sends only 
men who represent the revolutionary ideas of the Com- 
mittee and who, therefore, strengthen the influence of 
the latter by word and deed. It is also true that in most 
Bourses du Travail the secretaries are revolutionary and 
that they help to consolidate the influence of the Confederal 
Committee. But these secretaries have not usurped their 
power. They are elected because they have come to the 
front as speakers, writers, organizers, strike-leaders, etc. 
And they could come to the front only because conditions 
were such as to make their ideas and services helpful. 

Whatever one's attitude to the Confederation, one must 
acknowledge the results it has achieved. The strike sta- 
tistics of France, given in the following table, show the 
following facts: 



200 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [ 430 

Per cent of Per cent of 

Period strikes which strikers who lost 

failed their strikes 

1890-1899 44.6i 38.63 

1891-1900 43.86 34.17 

1892-1901 42.69 35.42 

1893-1902 42.48 31.75 

1894-1903 42.13 26.98 

1895-1904 40.24 25.09 

1896-1905 39.07 2376 

1897-1906 38.05 25.91 

1898-1007 38.14 25.37 

1899-1908 35.79 25.83 

Of course, these results can not be attributed entirely to 
the action of the Confederation. On the other hand, the 
influence of the Confederation on the improvement of gen- 
eral conditions of employment, on social legislation, etc., 
is undeniable. " In all branches of human activity," says 
M. Pawlowski, " wages have risen with a disconcerting 
and disquieting rapidity." 1 The agitation for the eight- 
hour day and the rising of 1906 hastened the vote on the 
weekly rest, induced the government to consider the appli- 
cation of the ten-hour day, popularized the practice of the 
" English week," etc. 2 

Whether the same or better results could have been ob- 
tained by " reformist " methods, is not a question to be 
considered, because in most cases the syndicats have no 
choice. A strike once begun, the character of the struggle 
is determined by conditions which exist and not by any that 
would be desirable. This is proven by the fact that very 
often the so-called " reformist " syndicats carry on their 
struggles in the same way and by the same methods as do 
the revolutionary ones. 

The comparative influence of the Confederation explains 

1 A. Pawlowski, La Confide" ration Gtnirale du Travail, p. 130. 

2 Ibid., p. 123. 



431] CHARACTER AND CONDITIONS 2 OI 

the fact why the " reformists " do not leave the organiza- 
tion, though they are bitter in their opposition to the revo- 
lutionists. The " reformists " feel that they would thereby 
lose a support which is of value to them. Besides, in many 
cases such an act would lead to divisions within the " re- 
formist " federations, all of which, as already indicated, 
contain considerable revolutionary minorities. 

The revolutionary syndicalists, however, are in their 
turn compelled to make concessions to those exigencies of 
the labor movement which have nothing to do with revolu- 
tionary ends. Of course, the revolutionary syndicalists 
are workingmen and they are interested in the immediate 
improvement of economic conditions. But there can be 
little doubt that the leaders and the more conscious and pro- 
nounced revolutionary syndicalists are mainly interested in 
their revolutionary ideal, in the abolition of capitalism and 
of the wage-system. The struggles for higher wages, 
shorter hours, etc., are a necessity which they must make 
a virtue of while awaiting the hoped for " final " struggle. 
And when they theorize about the continuity of the strug- 
gles of to-day with the great struggles of to-morrow, when 
they interpret their every-day activities as part of a contin- 
uous social warfare, they are merely creating a theory 
which in its turn justifies their practice and preserves their 
revolutionary fire from extinction. 

But theorizing does not essentially change the character 
of all syndicalist activities. The Confederal Committee 
must attend to administrative and other questions, such as 
the questions of viaticum, of the label, etc. The necessities 
of the syndical movement often lead the members of the 
Confederal Committee into the ante-chambers of Parlia- 
ment or into the private rooms of the Ministers whose as- 
sistance is solicited. The most revolutionary federations 
can not help entering into negotiations with employers for 



202 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [433 

the settlement of strikes. In practice, therefore, the dis- 
tinction between " revolutionary " and " reformist " syn- 
dicalists is often obscured, because both act as they must 
and not as they would. 1 

This must not be interpreted to mean that there is any 
conscious hypocrisy or undue personal interest on the part 
of the leaders of the revolutionary syndicalists. On the 
contrary, the most bitter opponents of the Confederation 
must admit that the reverse is true. " However one may 
judge their propaganda," says M. Mermeix, " he is obliged 
to acknowledge the disinterestedness of the libertarians 
who lead the syndicalist movement. They do not work 
for money. . . ." 2 There is also no field in the Confedera- 
tion for political ambition. Still the movement has its de- 
mands which require suppleness and pliability on the part 
of the leaders and which make impossible the rigid appli- 
cation of principles. 

On the other hand, the revolutionary syndicalists have 
in the syndicats a tremendous force for their revolutionary 
ends. The close relation of syndical life to all political 
and economic problems gives the Confederal Committee 
the opportunity to participate in all questions of interest. 
The high cost of living, the danger of a war, the legis- 
lative policy of the government, troubles among the wine- 
growers, any public question, indeed, is the occasion for the 
intervention of the Confederal Committee. The latter ap- 
pears, then, also as a revolutionary organization which is 
always ready to criticise, to discredit and to attack the gov- 
ernment, and which is openly pursuing the overthrow of 
existing institutions in France. And when one keeps in 

1 This is admitted by both sides. See reports of last Congress held 
at Toulouse (1910), p. in. 

2 Terrail-Mermeix, La Syndicalisme contre le Socialisme (Paris, 
1007), P- 231. 



433] CHARACTER AND CONDITIONS 203 

mind the indefatigable anti-militaristic and anti-patriotic 
propaganda carried on by the Bourses du Travail all over 
the country, the revolutionary character of the Confedera- 
tion may be fully appreciated. 

What is the future that may be predicted for the General 
Confederation of Labor? Will the synthesis of revolution- 
ism and of unionism that has been achieved in it continue 
more or less stable until the " final " triumph of the revo- 
lutionary syndicalists? Or will the latter be overpowered 
by the " reformist " elements who will impress their ideas 
on the Confederation and who will change the character 
of French syndicalism? 

These questions cannot at present be answered. The 
movement is so young that no clear tendencies either way 
can be discerned.- The two possibilities, however, may be 
considered in connection with the conditions that would be 
required to transform them into realities. 

Those who predict a change in the character of French 
syndicalism generally have the history of English Trades 
Unionism in mind. They compare revolutionary syndical- 
ism to the revolutionary period of English Trades Union- 
ism and think of the change that came about in the latter 
in the third quarter of the past century. But the compar- 
ison is of little value, because the conditions of France are 
different from those of England, and because the interna- 
tional economic situation to-day is very different from 
what it was fifty years ago. 

It is probable that if the French syndicats should de- 
velop into large and strong unions, highly centralized and 
provided with large treasuries, other ideas and methods 
would prevail in the syndicalist movement. But this change 
is dependent on a change in the economic life of France. 
France must cease to be " the banker of Europe ", must 



204 THE LAB 0R MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [ 4 ^ 4 

cease to let other countries use its piled-up millions * for 
the development of their natural resources and industry, 
and must devote itself to the intensification of its own 
industrial activities. Such a change could bring about 
greater productivity, higher wages, and a higher concen- 
tration of the workingmen of the country. This change 
in conditions of life might result in a modification of the 
psychology of the French workingmen, though how rapid 
and how thorough-going such a process could be is a matter 
of conjecture. But whether France will or can follow the 
example of England or of Germany, in view of its natural 
resources and of the situation of the international market, 
it does not seem possible to say. Besides, to change com- 
pletely the character of French syndicalism, it would be 
necessary to wipe out the political history of France and 
its revolutionary traditions. 

On the other hand, the triumph of the revolutionary syn- 
dicalists presupposes a total readjustment of groups and of 
interests. The Confederation counts now about 400,000 
members. Official statistics count about 1,000,000 organ- 
ized workingmen in France. But it must be remembered 
that the federations underestimate their numbers for the 
Confederation in order to pay less, while they exaggerate 
their numbers for the Annuaire Statistique in order to ap- 
pear more formidable. The Confederation, besides, for 
various reasons rejects a number of organizations which 
desire to join it. It may be safe to say, therefore, that the 
Confederation brings under its influence the greater part 
of the organized workingmen of France. 

But the total number of workingmen in France, accord- 
ing to the Census of 1906, is about 10,000,000, of which 
about 5,000,000 are employed in industry and in transpor- 

1 On the savings of France see A. Neymarck in Journal de la Sta- 
tistique, May-July, 1006. 



435] CHARACTER AND CONDITIONS 205 

tation. The numbers of independent producers in indus- 
try, commerce, and agriculture is about 9,000,000, of which 
about 2,000,000 are petits patrons. Over a million and a 
half persons are engaged in the liberal professions and in 
the public services. 1 

Among the latter the revolutionary syndicalists have met 
with success in recent years. The ideas of revolutionary 
syndicalism have gained adherents among the employees 
of the Post Office, Telegraph and Telephone, and among 
the teachers of the public schools. The recent Congresses 
of the teachers have declared themselves ready to collabor- 
ate with the workingmen for the realization of their ideal 
society. The following motion adopted by the recent Con- 
gress of Nantes, at which 500 delegates were present, is 
very characteristic : " The professional associations of 
teachers (men and women), employees of the State, of the 
Departments and of the Communes," reads the motion, "as- 
sembled in the Bourse du Travail, declare their sympathy 
for the working-class, declare that the best form of pro- 
fessional action is the syndical form; express their will to 
work together with the workingmen's organizations for the 
realization of the Social Republic." 2 

Also among the industrial and commercial middle classes 
there are some who look with favor on syndicalism. The 
French middle classes have for the last quarter of a cen- 
tury tried to organize themselves for resistance against the 
"financial feudalism" from which they suffer. Several or- 
ganizations have been formed among the small merchants 
and masters, and in 1908 the " Association for the Defense 
of the Middle Classes " was constituted. The president of 
this Association, M. Colrat, wrote : " The ideas of the bour- 

1 The active population in 1906 was over 20,000,000, out of a total 
population of over 39,000,000. Journal des £conomistes, Jan., 191 1. 
2 L'Humanite, August 8, 191 1. 



206 THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN FRANCE [436 

geois syndicalism on the future are the same as those of the 
workingmen's syndicalism. . . . Far from contradicting 
one another, the syndicalism of the middle classes and the 
syndicalism of the working-classes reinforce each other in 
many respects, and notwithstanding many vexations, they 
lead to a state of relative equilibrium by a certain equality 
of opposing forces." 1 In the struggle against the big cap- 
italists the leaders of the middle classes appear to be ready 
to form an alliance with the working-class. There can be 
little doubt, however, that the middle classes in general are 
opposed to the revolutionary ideals of the syndicalists. To 
succeed, the revolutionary syndicalists must bring about a 
change in the attitude of these classes, for the history of 
France has shown that the fear of " Communism " may 
throw the middle classes into the arms of a Caesar. 

Whatever possibility may become a reality, France seems 
destined to go through a series of more or less serious 
struggles. Hampered by the elements which hark back 
to the past and which have not yet lost all importance, dis- 
organized by the revolutionists who look forward to the 
future for the realization of their ideal, the Republic of 
France is still lacking the stability which could save her 
from upheavals and from historical surprises. The highly 
centralized form of government and the dominating posi- 
tion which Paris still holds in the life of France make such 
surprises easier and more tempting than would otherwise 
be the case. The process of social readjustment which is 
going on all over the world at present, therefore, must lead 
in France to a more or less catastrophic collision of the 
discordant elements which her political and economic his- 
tory have brought into existence. 

The struggle has already begun. The government of 

1 M. Colrat, Vers I'equilibre social, quoted by Mr. J. L. Puecht, " Le 
Mouvement des Classes Moyennes," in La Grande Revue, Dec., 1910. 



437] CHARACTER AND CONDITIONS 207 

the Republic is determined to put an end to the revolu- 
tionary activities of the syndicalists. It is urged on by all 
those who believe that only the weakness of the Govern- 
ment has been the cause of the strength of the Syndicalists. 
On the other hand, the Syndicalists are determined to fight 
their battle to the end. What the outcome may be is hid- 
den in the mystery of the future. Qui vivra — verra. 






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des anciens eleves de l'Ecole libre des Sciences politiques. Paris, 

1909. 
Franck, Charles. Les Bourses du travail et la confederation gener- 
ate du Travail. Paris, 1910. 
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1871. 
Garin, J. L'anarchie et les anarchistes. Paris, 1885. 
Georgi, E. Theorie und Praxis des Generalstreiks in der modernen 

Arbeiterbewegung. Jena, 1908. 



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Grande Revue. Monthly. 

Griffuelhes, V. Voyage revolutionnaire ; impressions d'un propagand- 

iste. Paris, 1910. 
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44 1 ] BIBLIOGRAPHY 2 j j 

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VITA 

The author of this dissertation was born in Russia, De- 
cember 4, 1883. He arrived in America at the age of four, 
and received his early education in the public schools of 
New York City. At the age of eleven he went back to 
Russia, where he was graduated from college in 1903, with 
a degree equivalent to that of B. S. He was honored with 
a gold medal which is the mark of greatest distinction in 
Russian colleges. 

During the years 1903- 1905 he studied medicine at the 
University of Kiev, attending at the same time courses in 
Economics and Philosophy. Part of the academic year 
1 904- 1 905 he spent in Paris studying the social movement 
of France. 

In May, 1906, he returned to America, and in the fall of 
1907 entered Columbia University. In 1908 he was ap- 
pointed University Scholar in Sociology. While at Colum- 
bia, 1 907- 191 1, he pursued graduate courses in Sociology 
under Professors F. H. Giddings and A. A. Tenney; in 
Statistics under Professor H. L. Moore; in Economics 
under Professors E. R. A. Seligman, H. R. Seager, J. B. 
Clark, V. G. Simkhovitch; in Philosophy under Professors 
F. J. E. Woodbridge, John Dewey, W. P. Montague; in 
History under Professor J. H. Robinson, and in Compara- 
tive Jurisprudence under Professor Munroe Smith. 

While pursuing his studies he was engaged in journal- 
ism and in translation work. For four months, February 
to May, 19 10, he was connected with the Bureau of Cen- 
sus as Special Agent. 

213 



LEJa'13 



THE LABOR MOVEMENT 
IN FRANCE 

A Study in Revolutionary Syndicalism 



BY 

LOUIS LEVINE 



SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 

FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

IN THE 

Faculty of Political Science 
in Columbia University 



NEW YORK 
1912 



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